A primer on Claude Code for beginners

Claude Code is an amazing tool. And with each update it gets better.

I've been using it since last summer, when a friend strongly encouraged I give it a try. I'd been a fan of Replit before, but they charge a per usage fee, and the costs were getting ridiculous.

Over the last month I've talked to a lot of folks about Claude Code, and helped get them onboarded.

Who is this for?

• If you do tasks that could likely be documented and repeatable.
• If you have an idea for software you want to try out
• If you want to have a second brain to run ideas by

Yes, other tools do some of these, and there's a lot of crossover between Gemini, Claude Code, and OpenAI's Codex, but for now we'll focus on the Claude Code use case.

Here's the steps I've been sharing with folks to get started.

1. Install it - Go to Claude and download the desktop edition onto your Mac or PC.
2. Signup for a paid $20/month Pro account.
3. On the Desktop app go to the Code tab. If you see an error saying that you don't have the right software installed, ask Claude Chat how to get past that.¹
4. Then, again in the Code tab, ask Claude to create a Hello World website on your localhost.²

There, you've done it. Four steps and you're up and running.³

Now that you've seen that Hello World popup on your computer—well you're free to dream and see what you can make.

Some things I've created so far: An animated basketball infographic that explains the starting positions, design prototypes for the apps I work on, ideas for friends to help spin up quick websites, websites of my own for ideas I've had, app ideas that have been in my head for years, assistants that help me solve problems I'm wrestling through.

All of this is possible with tools like Claude Code.⁴

Inevitably, when I've shown people how to use this, many think of ideas and start tweaking and playing with them. That's what matters right now. It's not that we're giving up our minds to the machines, but rather that we're empowered to have a buddy to help us think through and solve problems.

I don't want to give up my brain. I like it very much thank you. I want to have original thoughts, I want to create, editorialize, dream. But sometimes, actually many times, it's nice to have a tool like Claude to offload some of the tedious work, and help give me ideas to keep moving forward.

This should open up directions you've wanted to pursue, allow you to play with concepts. And, if you use it right, you can still have that human curated view on the world—that mushy, flawed, mind that helps to give opinions and is the reason we find the souls of humanity endearing.

I was talking to a friend recently, who wants to see if tools like Claude could help simplify some of the work they've been doing for years. I have no doubt that it will. They'll of course need to be careful with their work, making sure that everything is double checked and hallucinations are reviewed. But I don't doubt that this will speed things up and help the work they do.⁵

1. On a PC this involves installing PowerShell, on a Mac you'll need to install Command Line Tools. I've helped dozens of people get through doing this, namely by asking them to screenshot any errors they find and sharing that back to Claude. If you have to install either of these it typically takes around 30 minutes, and you may need to restart your computer.
2. Localhost is a technical way of asking your computer to become a server and share your website on it.
3. There's obviously more to this, such as backing up your code to Github, publishing your website online (to somewhere like Fly.io or Netlify), using folders on your computer per project, but in essence you've done it, you can at least start from here.
4. And here Claude Cowork might be more useful, where you can have projects that involve less building apps, and more having conversations to think through problems you're wrestling with. The challenge I've found is that Cowork is still so new, that it's often buggy. But the little I've used it has been amazing.
5. One massive caveat. If you're putting sensitive information into Claude, such as things about your company—make sure you turn off Claude's ability to train on the information you share. That's usually available in settings. And if you're not sure where it is, ask Claude about it. We don't know, of course, what they're doing beyond that, so buyer beware on sensitive information, but at least turn that off.