Final Project Checkpoint 2

In this checkpoint you build out your Working MVP: every feature on your "Must have" list runs end to end. No half-finished features, no broken paths.

Due: Thursday, April 23rd at 3:00pm.

Step 1: Read your personalized guide

Each of you is building something different, so the specific next steps are personalized. Find your guide here:

👉 Final Project Paths

Your guide reflects the latest state of your repo -- where you are, what to focus on this week, and prompts you can use with your agent. Read it first, then use the general workflow below for anything it doesn't cover.

The general workflow

Your personalized guide tells you what to build. This section reminds you how to build it.

1. Re-read your spec

Open project.spec.md. Look at your Must have (MVP) list. For each feature, decide: done, in progress, or not started. If an item is vague, rewrite it now so you can actually check it off.

If a feature is too big to finish by Thursday, cut it or move it to stretch. Honest scope beats ambitious scope.

2. Plan before you build

Use Plan Mode in Cursor (or your agent of choice) before writing code:

Read my @project.spec.md and the current state of my code. List my
MVP features and tell me which ones are done, in progress, or not
started. For each one that's not done, give me a 2-3 step plan to
finish it. Keep it small — I have until Thursday.

3. Build one feature at a time

For each remaining feature:

  1. Decide what "done" looks like (one sentence).
  2. Write the core logic yourself. If you can't explain a function out loud, rewrite it.
  3. Use your agent for the surrounding pieces (HTML, CSS, Pygame draw code, API calls, plotting, scraping). Always read what it produces.
  4. Run it. Try a bad input. Does it still work?
  5. Commit with a clear message (add weight calc for strength goal, not update).

When you get stuck, ask your agent to explain, not to fix:

This function isn't doing what I expect. Walk me through what it's
doing line by line. Don't change the code — just explain it.

Then you make the fix yourself.

4. Polish the rough edges

  • README: short description, how to run, what the user can do. One paragraph + a code block is enough.
  • Error handling: what happens with empty input, garbage input, or a bad click? Handle the obvious failures.
  • Cleanup: delete dead code, unused files, and test scripts that aren't part of the app.

5. Update your journal

Add a Checkpoint 2 entry to project.journal.md:

  • What features now work end to end
  • What you wrote yourself vs. what your agent helped with
  • What's still rough or unfinished
  • What you want to focus on for the final week

This is what I use to write your next weekly guide. The more specific you are, the better the guidance you get back.

What is due for Checkpoint 2

By Thursday, April 23rd at 3:00pm, you should have:

Anything specific to your project (files to add, features to wire up, things to clean up) is in your personalized guide.

Check your work with your agent

Before you submit, have your agent run a final review:

I am building a [web app / data science project / game] for my final
project. Review my Checkpoint 2 work using this guide:
https://csc-121.path.app/unit-3/resources/checkpoint-2-review.agent.llm.md

Replace the bracket text with your actual project type.

Commit and push

Commit and push my work to GitHub.