Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. You tell it what you want in plain English. It reads the files in a folder on your computer, writes new ones, edits existing ones, and runs commands. You watch, approve, and check the result.
You do not need to write code to use it. You need to say clearly what you want and check whether you got it. If you have ever briefed a contractor, you already have the core skill.
This guide gets you from nothing installed to three small things built. Every command below was checked against Anthropic's setup docs on November 3, 2026.
What you need before you start
Don't want the terminal at all? Anthropic also ships Claude Code as a desktop app, a VS Code extension, and on the web at claude.ai/code. They work. This guide uses the terminal because Anthropic's docs and most of the help online assume you're there. It's also where we teach it.
Step 1: Get comfortable in the terminal
The terminal is a window where you type commands instead of clicking. It looks hostile because it gives you no buttons. You only need five commands to get around.
Cmd+Space, type Terminal, and press Enter. On Windows, open the Start menu, type PowerShell, and press Enter.pwd # where am I right now? ls # what's in this folder? mkdir projects # make a new folder called projects cd projects # go into it cd .. # go back up one level
These work in the Mac Terminal and in Windows PowerShell. None of them can damage anything. Type them until they feel boring.
open . On Windows, type explorer . The dot means "this folder." It's the fastest way to see that the terminal and your regular files are the same thing.Anthropic has a longer terminal guide for first-timers if you want more practice.
Step 2: Install Claude Code
Copy the line for your computer, paste it into the terminal, and press Enter.
# Mac, Linux, or WSL curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash # Windows PowerShell irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
Then check the install:
claude --versionYou should see a version number followed by (Claude Code). If you see "command not found," the new terminal can't find Claude Code yet. Anthropic's install troubleshooting page walks through the fix.
Already use Homebrew on a Mac? brew install --cask claude-code works too. Homebrew installs don't update on their own, so run brew upgrade claude-code now and then. The installer above updates itself.
Step 3: Start your first session
Claude Code always works inside one folder. Make a practice folder and start it there.
mkdir my-first-project cd my-first-project claude
Type a question and press Enter:
what can Claude Code do, and what should a beginner try first?This costs nothing and shows you how it answers. It can also answer questions about itself, so use it as your help desk.
Esc # stop Claude mid-task so you can redirect it Esc Esc # (empty prompt) open the rewind menu to undo edits Shift+Tab # switch permission mode (more on this below) /clear # start a fresh conversation /exit # leave Claude Code
To pick up where you left off later, run claude -c from the same folder.
Step 4: Build three small things
Tutorials teach you a tool. Small real projects teach you how to work with it. Each of these takes one session and teaches something different. Start a new folder for each one.
Your side business, your neighborhood, a hobby. The subject doesn't matter. Being able to judge the result does.
Make a single index.html page for my dog-walking business in East Austin. Sections: what I offer, prices, service area, and how to book. Use a clean layout with large text. No frameworks, just one HTML file.Open it with open index.html (Mac) or start index.html (Windows). Then ask for changes in plain English: "make the prices a table," "the header is too big." That loop is most of the job.
Put a copy of a CSV export in the folder. Customer list, transactions, anything with duplicates or bad formatting.
Read customers.csv. Write a script that removes duplicate rows by email address and saves the result as customers-clean.csv. Run it, then tell me how many rows you removed and show me three examples.Now Claude Code runs commands, not just edits files. Check its count against the file yourself. If it needs to install something to run the script, it will say so. Read what it wants to install before you approve it.
A quote calculator for your service, a checklist page for a process you repeat, a page that formats your weekly numbers. Something with a real user: you.
Start in plan mode (press Shift+Tab until it says plan). Claude researches and proposes a plan without changing files. Push back on the plan before it builds. Then run /init to create a CLAUDE.md file so the next session remembers the project. Our CLAUDE.md guide shows what to put in it.
When it works, put it online. The Vercel and GitHub guide gets you a live URL.
Step 5: The walls everyone hits
pwd, ls, and cd can't break anything. The real risk is Claude deleting or overwriting files, and you control that through permissions. Work in a dedicated project folder, and keep copies of anything you can't lose somewhere else.The permission mode decides what Claude can do without asking. Manual asks before every edit and command. Plan only reads and proposes. Auto runs most things on its own with background safety checks. Recent versions start new terminal sessions in Auto.
For your first few sessions, press Shift+Tab until you're in Manual. Seeing every step is how you learn what it's doing. When a prompt shows a command you don't recognize, press Esc to decline and ask "what does that command do?" first.
The rewind menu (Esc Esc or /rewind) undoes Claude's file edits within a session. Anthropic is clear that it isn't a replacement for version control. Changes made by commands it runs aren't always tracked. Git is your real undo button.
You don't have to learn git commands first. Ask Claude:
Set up git in this folder and commit everything with a clear message. From now on, commit after each change that works.Then read our git workflow for non-coders so you know what it's doing.
/clear between unrelated tasks too. A long conversation about one thing makes it worse at the next.How to keep going for free
Once the three builds work, you've learned the basics. These are the free resources worth your time, all from Anthropic:
The resource that matters most is a backlog of your own small problems. Keep a list of tasks you do by hand that annoy you. Each week, pick one and hand it to Claude Code. You'll learn more from that than from another course.
If you'd rather learn it in a room
Some people do fine alone with the free material. Others start it twice and stall. If that's you, the problem is usually structure, not content. MakerSquare's 2-week in-person program in Austin teaches Claude Code in the terminal from day one, alongside GitHub, Vercel, and Supabase, and you build on your own project the whole time.
Claude Code is the main build tool in MakerSquare's 2-week program in Austin. Students open it on day one and use it to ship their own project, with a real database and a live URL.