dex-by-dave

Dex by Dave — Your AI Chief of Staff

A personal operating system powered by Claude. Strategic work management, meeting intelligence, relationship tracking, daily planning — all configured for your specific role. No coding required.

Companion to Episode 8 of The Vibe PM Podcast and the full blog post.

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Setup Overview

Total time: ~10 minutes. Three steps: install tools → get the code → tell it your role.

Pick one of these to get started:

Option	Cost	What It Is
Cursor	Free tier works, or $20/month for Pro	An app with a built-in AI assistant (Claude). No separate Claude account needed.
Claude Code Desktop	Claude Pro $20/month	Anthropic's own app. Better experience — guaranteed self-learning hooks, automatic context loading.
Claude Code Terminal	Claude Pro $20/month	Same as Desktop but runs in Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows).

You do NOT go to claude.ai and type commands. You need one of the apps above. Cursor is the easiest starting point. Claude Code (Desktop or Terminal) gives you a better experience with self-learning hooks — setup instructions for those are further down this page.

Not sure which? Start with Cursor — it's free and gets you running in minutes. You can add or switch to Claude Code later.

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Getting Started

What You'll Need to Install (One-Time)

1. Cursor - Download and install (free account works fine)
2. Git - Required for setup and updates
   • Mac: Installs automatically when needed (you'll see a prompt)
   • Windows: Download from git-scm.com/download/win
3. Node.js - Download the "LTS" version and install (this enables the system's automation features)
4. Python 3.10+ - Download and install (required for MCP servers and task sync)
   • Minimum version: Python 3.10 or newer
   • Windows users: ⚠️ During installation, check the box "Add Python to PATH" - this is critical
   • Mac users with old Python: If you have Python 3.9 or older, download fresh from python.org

All installers walk you through setup with default options.

Why Python 3.10+? The MCP SDK (Model Context Protocol) requires Python 3.10 or newer. This powers the Work MCP server that enables task sync - when you check off a task in a meeting note, it updates everywhere automatically (person pages, project files, Tasks.md).

Mac users: If this is your first time using command-line tools, macOS will prompt you to install "Command Line Developer Tools" during setup. Click Install when prompted - it's safe and required. Takes 2-3 minutes.

About the Command Line

You'll use something called a "command line" (or "Terminal" on Mac, "PowerShell" on Windows) during setup. This is a text-based way to give your computer instructions - think of it as typing commands instead of clicking buttons.

Don't worry if this feels unfamiliar. You'll copy and paste a few commands, press Enter, and you're done. Takes less than 2 minutes.

Check Your Setup (Optional)

Want to verify everything's ready? Open your command line:

• Mac: Press Cmd+Space, type "Terminal", press Enter
• Windows: Press Win+R, type "powershell", press Enter

Copy and paste this line exactly as you see it, then press Enter:

git --version

You should see a response like: git version 2.x.x (any version number is fine)

If you see "command not found": Download Git from git-scm.com, install it, then close and reopen your command line and try again.

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Now copy and paste this line, then press Enter:

node --version

You should see a response like: v18.x.x or v20.x.x (must be version 18 or higher)

If you see "command not found": Download Node.js from nodejs.org, install it, then close and reopen your command line and try again.

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Finally, check Python:

python3 --version

Windows users: Try python --version if python3 doesn't work.

You should see a response like: Python 3.10.x or higher (3.11, 3.12, etc.)

If you see Python 3.9 or older: The MCP SDK requires Python 3.10+. Download and install a newer version:

• Mac/Windows: Download from python.org (get the latest stable version)
• After installing, restart your terminal and check the version again