Running commands the AI gives you — safely

A huge part of vibe coding is the AI saying "run this command" and handing you a line to paste. This is normal and fine. But adopt one habit that will protect you forever: read before you run.

You don't need to understand every flag. You need a rough sense of what the command does, especially the verb at the front:

• ls, pwd, cd, cat, echo — harmless. They look at things or move around. Run freely.
• npm install, pip install — they download and set up tools. Generally safe, but they change your project.
• rm, mv, anything with sudo, anything piping a download straight into your shell (curl ... | bash) — slow down. These can delete things or run code with full power over your machine.

If a command looks scary or you don't recognize the verb, ask: "What does this command do, and is it safe to run?" A good AI will explain it plainly. Never paste a command from a random website without that check. The command line does exactly what it's told — including the dangerous things — so the small habit of reading first is your seatbelt.