Terminal Tutor - an interactive Git CLI coach built with GitHub Copilot CLI

This is a submission for the GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge

What I Built

I built Terminal Tutor, an interactive command line tutor that teaches Git basics through hands-on practice.

Instead of showing theory, Terminal Tutor gives you a sequence of goals (initialize a repo, create a file, stage it, commit it, create a branch, etc.). You type real Git commands and the app validates the actual state of the filesystem and Git repository after each step.

A key focus of this MVP is cross-platform reliability. On Windows, the filesystem is often case-insensitive, while Git tracks exact filename casing. That mismatch can confuse beginners (for example, creating readme.md when the lesson expects README.md). Terminal Tutor detects these cases, tolerates them, and guides the user without blocking progress.

Repo: Terminal Tutor on GitHub

Demo

Video walkthrough

Watch the video on Vimeo

Screenshots (app in action)

Below are screenshots of the tutor running (not only build logs).

Tutor running a Git lesson (step view)

Validation feedback after staging and committing

My Experience with GitHub Copilot CLI

I used GitHub Copilot CLI as my terminal pair programmer across the whole build.

How Copilot CLI helped:

• 
  Project scaffolding: generate the initial Node.js + TypeScript CLI structure and wire up Commander + interactive prompts.


• 
  Debugging and iteration: when validation failed on Windows (Git output parsing and filename casing edge cases), I described the failure and Copilot proposed fixes plus verification commands. I applied changes, rebuilt, and re-tested until the lesson flow was stable.


• 
  Improving UX: Copilot helped refine error messages, hints, and step feedback so the tutor is clearer for beginners.

I also kept a short prompt log inside the repo and show Copilot CLI usage directly in the video.