Getting started with Claude

Jun 28, 2026

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If you’ve used ChatGPT or chatted with Claude in a browser, you’ve seen one half of what these tools can do. The other half — where the AI doesn’t just answer you but actually does the work, in your files, on your machine — is a bigger leap than it sounds, and it’s surprisingly easy to start using.

This is a guide for getting there from zero. By the end you’ll have an account, the tools installed, and Claude running inside a real project so you can try it for yourself. It’s written for beginners, and that includes the curious non-developer — if you’ve never opened a terminal, you’re exactly who the easy path is for. Plan on about fifteen minutes.

Chat vs. agentic AI

The thing most people have used is a classic chat: ChatGPT, or Claude at claude.ai. You type a question, it types back. It’s brilliant at explaining, drafting, and brainstorming — but it lives in its own window. If it writes you some code or a document, you copy it out, paste it where it belongs, and run it yourself. The AI advises; you do the work.

Agentic AI closes that loop. Instead of just talking back, it can take action on your behalf: read and write files, run commands, search a codebase, and work through a multi-step task — all inside your actual project folder. You ask for the outcome and it carries out the steps to get there.

Think of it as the difference between an advisor and an assistant. A classic chat is the advisor on the phone telling you what to type. Agentic AI is the assistant sitting at your keyboard, doing it — and showing you what it changed. Ask a chatbot to “add a license file to my project” and you’ll get text to copy. Ask an agentic tool the same thing and the file simply appears, written into the right place.

Claude isn’t the only one. This guide is about Claude, but agentic AI is a broader shift — OpenAI’s Codex and Google’s Gemini CLI are agentic tools too. The ideas here carry over; the setup steps below are Claude-specific.

Sign up

Everything starts with an account. Go to claude.ai and sign up — it’s free, and the free account gets you the classic chat right away. Poke around, ask it something, get a feel for it.

Heads up on plans. The free plan gives you the chat. The agentic tools below — Claude Code — need a paid plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). If you just want to try the chat first, free is plenty. Come back here when you’re ready to let Claude work inside your projects.

Two ways to go agentic

There are two doors to the agentic side, and they lead to the same room. Pick whichever suits you — you can switch later.

  • The Claude Desktop app — a normal application with a window, no terminal required. It’s the easiest start, and it has Claude Code built right in. Available for macOS and Windows.
  • Claude Code (the command-line tool) — runs in a terminal. A little more hands-on, a lot of control, and it works everywhere, including Linux and WSL.

Both reach the same capabilities. If “terminal” makes you nervous, start with the Desktop app. If you already live in a terminal, the CLI will feel right at home.

Install the Desktop app

Head to claude.ai/download and grab the installer for your system — it’s available for macOS and Windows. (On Linux, skip ahead to the CLI section below.)

  1. Download and install it the way you would any other app.
  2. Open it.
  3. Sign in with the account you made a moment ago.

That’s it. To work on a project, you point the app at a folder on your computer, and Claude can see and act on the files inside it.

Install Claude Code (the CLI)

Prefer the terminal, or on Linux? Claude Code installs with a single command. Pick the one for your setup.

macOS & Linux

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

On Linux, package-manager installs (apt, dnf, apk) are also available if you’d rather go that route.

Windows

In PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Installing Git for Windows alongside it is recommended — it lets Claude Code use its Bash tool, which makes it more capable.

Windows + WSL

WSL is a full Linux environment running inside Windows. If that’s where your work lives, open your WSL terminal (not PowerShell) and run the macOS/Linux installer there. You install and launch claude from inside WSL.

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Native Windows or WSL? Use native Windows for Windows-native projects and tools. Use WSL if your project relies on a Linux toolchain, or if you want Claude Code’s sandboxed command execution. Either works — pick where your code already lives.

Already have Node.js? You can install it through npm instead:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

That route needs Node.js 18 or newer. Whichever method you used, confirm it worked:

claude --version

A version number means you’re ready.

Start it in a project

A “project” is just a folder of files — your website, a script, some notes, anything.

With the CLI, open a terminal in that folder and run:

claude

The first time, it’ll open your browser to log in. After that, you’re talking to something that can read and change the files right in front of it.

With the Desktop app, open the app and point it at the same folder. Same result, no terminal.

A few prompts to try

The fastest way to feel the difference is to ask for something real. Point it at a folder of your own and try a few of these:

  • “Summarize what’s in this folder.”
  • “Take my rough notes in notes.txt and turn them into a clean, organized document.”
  • “Rename these files so they’re sorted by date, and group them into subfolders by topic.”
  • “Walk me through what this project does and how the pieces fit together.”
  • “Figure out the best way to turn these files into a single PDF, then go ahead and do it.” — the real payoff: it researches how, then actually does it.

Whether your folder holds code, documents, photos, or a half-finished idea, the move is the same: talk to it like you’d talk to a capable teammate — plain language is enough. Watch what it reads and changes, and you’ll quickly get a sense of what it’s good at.

Go deeper

Once you’re set up, the fastest way to learn what Claude can actually do is to watch someone drive it. Nick Saraev’s Claude Code Full Course is a thorough, beginner-friendly walkthrough of the tools and how to use them.

I’ve deliberately kept this guide to the basics — there are deeper layers worth learning later (project memory via a CLAUDE.md file, custom skills, and agents) once the fundamentals feel comfortable. For now, the best next step is simple: open one of your own projects and start asking.