Welcome to Build a Pokedex

We're going to build a Pokedex in a command-line REPL. We'll use the incredible PokéAPI to fetch all of the data we'll need using GET requests. If you're not familiar with Pokemon, or a Pokedex, that's okay! A Pokedex is just a make-believe device that lets us look up information about Pokemon - things like their name, type, and stats.

for Windows Users

If you try to complete this course without WSL 2 installed on Windows, you're gonna have a bad time.

Learning Goals

Practice making HTTP requests in TypeScript
Learn how to build a CLI tool that makes interacting with a back-end server easier
Get hands-on practice with local Typescript development and tooling
Learn about caching and how to use it to improve performance

Assignment

Before we dive into the code, let's make sure you have everything you'll need on your machine.

Create a new repository on your machine for this project.
Install NVM (it's my preferred way to manage Node.js versions). After installing nvm, add a .nvmrc file to the root of your project directory that contains a snippet of text:

22.15.0

This allows you to simply type nvm use in your CLI while in the root of your project to activate the correct version of node! You may get an installation command to run if you don't yet have that version of node, but it's just another one-liner.

Check to make sure you've activated the correct version of node by typing:

node --version
# Prints: v22.15.0

Use the Boot.dev CLI to run the tests. Go ahead and install it following the instructions in the README, then run bootdev login to authenticate.

Submit the CLI tests. There's no penalty on failure for this lesson.