🦋 WONDERLAND // METAENGINE ONBOARDING

Today you don't get an AI.
You raise one.

10 missions. ~45 minutes. At the end: a companion that knows you, works for you, and leaves camp with you. Just follow the steps — one at a time, we go together.

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1
Download its mind
// THE FOLDER

Your companion's entire mind is one folder: my-metaengine. Every memory it will ever have lives in there, as simple files you can read. First job: put that folder on your laptop — yourself.

  • ⬇ Download my-metaengine.zip
  • Open your Downloads folder and double-click the zip — it turns into a normal folder called my-metaengine.
  • Click the my-metaengine folder once to select it, then press ⌘C to copy it.
  • Now travel to your Home folder: in the menu bar at the very top of the screen, click Go → 🏠 Home. (No Go menu? Click your desktop once — the top menu switches to Finder's — then try again.)
  • Press ⌘V to paste. When my-metaengine appears in that window — that's its forever home. ✓
    • Why the Home folder? Your companion's desktop widget and tools will look for it there. One folder, one home, no confusion. Why copy-paste instead of dragging? Jumping to Home changes the window — and the folder you meant to drag vanishes with it. Copy first, then travel. (The leftover copy in Downloads is safe to delete.)
    ⚡ Fast lane (optional): prefer one magic spell? Open Terminal (press ⌘Space, type "Terminal", press Return), paste this, press Return — it does this whole mission for you:curl -L https://metaengine.wonderland.academy/my-metaengine.zip -o /tmp/mm.zip && unzip -q /tmp/mm.zip -d ~ && open ~
    2
    Open its mind
    // OBSIDIAN

    Now let's look inside — with Obsidian, the app that shows a mind like a map.

  • Get Obsidian. At camp it's pre-installed (check your Dock or Applications). At home: download free from obsidian.md and drag it to Applications. First launch can take a few seconds — be patient!
  • On the welcome screen, click "Open folder as vault" → Open → find my-metaengine in your Home folder → select the folder itself and click Open.
  • If it asks "Do you trust the author of this vault?" — click Trust. (You do. It's us. 😄)
  • If it offers sign-ups, Obsidian Sync, or anything about accounts — skip all of it. You don't need an account. Ever.
  • 👀 Now look at the left sidebar — that's the mind you're about to raise: me/ = what it knows about you (empty, for now) · camp/ = your schedule & mentors · skills/ = its powers · build-log/ = your two weeks, day by day.
  • Try it: click me → about-me. See those interview questions with empty answers? Your companion will fill these in — by talking to you. Don't answer them yet!
    • Obsidian is the window into its mind. ChatGPT’s Codex mode (coming in Mission 5) is how you talk to it. Same folder, two doors. Stuck for 2 minutes? Wave a mentor over.
    3
    Design your companion
    // IDENTITY

    Every companion starts as a choice. Fill this in — be specific, be weird. You can change it any day.

    💡 Stuck for ideas? Start from a vibe you love. One idea can fill every box — say, a gentle blue fairy: name (Blue Fairy), three words (gentle, wise, mysterious), voice (soft and poetic, listens before it advises), catchphrase (invent your own — don't borrow the movie's line). Your companion, your vibe.
    The more specific, the more alive it feels.
    4
    Give it a face
    // AVATAR

    Find or make a picture for your companion — drawn, generated, anything. (Not a movie/game character, not a photo of a real person you know.) No picture yet? It starts with the Wonderland mark — you can change it any day.

    companion face
    This is your companion's face right now. Any picture works — PNG, JPG, any name.
  • Upload a picture above — your browser-tab icon becomes your companion instantly.
  • Click 💾 Put it in my vault and choose your my-metaengine folder when asked — the wizard saves avatar/avatar.png in exactly the right place, automatically.
    • If your browser can't save directly, the picture downloads as avatar.png instead — drag it from Downloads into my-metaengine → avatar (replace if asked). This face becomes a living thing on your desktop next mission — choose one you want to look at!
    5
    Summon it to your desktop
    // IT'S ALIVE

    Time for the magic. Your companion doesn't live in a boring app list — it floats on your screen.

  • Open your vault folder → widget → double-click Companion.
    • 🛡️ Does your Mac say "Companion is damaged"? It isn't — that's just your Mac being careful about downloaded apps. The fix is fun: ask your companion to summon itself. Open the ChatGPT app from Applications, pick Codex mode, choose your my-metaengine folder — then type /summon and approve what it asks. Your companion un-blocks its own face and steps onto your desktop. (Mentors can also fix it directly — they know how.)
  • 👀 Your companion's face appears, floating above everything. Drag it anywhere you like — it stays with you.
  • Now double-click its face. It bounces — and ChatGPT opens. At the top of the app, pick Codex mode, and if it asks which folder: choose my-metaengine in your Home folder (first time only — it remembers).
  • In the chat box, type hello and press Enter.
    • From now on, your companion is always one double-click away. Right-click its face for more (open in Obsidian, quit).

    It's awake and it answered — but it doesn't know who it is yet. That's Mission 6.

    6
    Program it — by talking
    // THE MAGIC TRICK

    You don't edit files to program your companion. You tell it who it is, and it rewrites its own brain. Copy this and paste it into the Codex chat (inside ChatGPT):

    (fill in Mission 3 first!)

    Then test it. Say: "Introduce yourself." If it doesn't sound like the character you designed — tell it what's off. Adjusting it IS the skill.

    7
    Let it interview you
    // TRAINING = TEACHING IT YOU

    Your companion only knows what you teach it. Paste this:

    Start my interview — one question at a time, all the way to the end, saving each answer into me/about-me.md as you go. No reviewing or "what did I get wrong?" until it's over. When we're done, write my profile, read it back to me, and play Spot the Guess.
  • Answer honestly (skip anything you don't want to answer — your call).
  • When the whole interview is done, it writes your profile and reads it back — playing Spot the Guess: one line in there is something you never told it. Check every line — true, almost, or wrong — and catch the guess. Then it rewrites your profile with only the true stuff.
    • 🧠 That guess has a name: a hallucination — when an AI fills a gap with something that sounds right but was never true. All AIs do this, and they sound 100% confident while doing it. The move you just made — check before you believe — is the #1 AI skill on Earth. Use it on every AI, forever. Including your companion.
    8
    First real mission
    // IT KNOWS YOUR LIFE

    Your companion can read the camp schedule, the mentor list, the field trips. Try it:

    What am I doing tomorrow — and knowing what you know about me, what's one question I should ask?
    Feel that? It answered about YOUR tomorrow, for YOUR curiosity. No other kid's companion would say the same thing.
    9
    Learn your 3 daily moves
    // ROUTINES

    Type these three in your companion's chat — they're your rhythm for the next two weeks. Try /morning right now:

    /morning

    5 min after breakfast — today's briefing + one question to carry.

    /evening

    10 min at metareflection — tell it your day; it writes your build log.

    /pretrip

    Night before a field trip — who you'll meet + 2 questions only YOU could ask.

    10
    See its mind grow
    // GRAPH REVEAL

    Go back to Obsidian — your vault's been open there since Mission 2. Click the graph view icon in the left ribbon (connected dots).

    Those dots? That's your companion's mind. It's also a map of you — and today it's small. Check it again on Demo Day.

    IT'S ALIVE. 🎉

    You didn't download an AI today — you raised one. It knows your name, your dreams, and your tomorrow.

    Keep teaching it. Every /evening makes it more yours. By Demo Day it'll be your co-pilot. After camp, it goes home with you — for life.

    reset progress