2026-02-06 - Refactor Module 09 manual setup gate

Timeline

16:09 (Action) Reduced “wall of text” at tour start by adding a Guided Tour Mode header and deferring the full tools list to Module 09 guided-tour prompt docs.
16:35 (Action) Refactored the Module 09 launcher to use a manual, gated setup flow (Task 1: start ollama serve in a new terminal tab; Task 2: open Docker Desktop and wait for Engine running).
16:35 (Action) Added a student-facing launch_me.py entrypoint as the canonical way to start the capstone module.
16:35 (Action) Updated Module 09 docs to match the new manual setup sequence and the new launch_me.py entrypoint.
16:36 (Observation) Verified the setup gates behave as intended: they block until Ollama/Docker are actually reachable and handle cancellation without a traceback.

The guided tour startup UX was confusing for beginners, especially during Ollama/Docker setup (noisy output, unclear “what do I do now?” moments).
The goal shifted toward a “full manual” setup for services so students learn how to start/identify/stop them confidently, while still keeping the tour flow strict and step-by-step.

Refactored Module 09 launcher into a manual two-task setup gate (Ollama + Docker).
Implemented a hard “type continue to proceed” loop that refuses to advance until each service is actually reachable.
Added a simple launch_me.py wrapper to standardize the student command while preserving existing launcher internals.
Updated Module 09 context.md and the guided tour walkthrough to document the new flow precisely for true beginners.

The manual setup gate is clearer and more teachable than silent automation: it makes service state visible and makes the student practice a repeatable startup routine.
Gating setup with “continue + live reachability checks” prevents the tour from starting in a broken state (and avoids the common “it hung / it printed errors / what now?” failure mode).

Decide whether to keep (or remove) the previous auto-start approach behind a flag for power users, while keeping manual as the default for students.
Tighten the wording/tempo of the cinematic capstone welcome to match the course’s established style and reduce perceived “setup friction”.
Continue iterating the guided tour’s step text so each tool introduction has: goal → exact command choices → expected outcome → what to do if it fails.

Boundary Reminder: Seeds. No maintenance. No roadmap.