Claude Code: installation and first commands for people who have never written code

Claude Code: installation and first commands for people who have never written code. If you have never opened a terminal, this guide shows you exactly what to type, in order, to install the tool and receive your first response from it.

The commands below have been checked against Anthropic's official documentation, with separate versions for Windows, macOS and Linux. You do not need programming experience, just an active Claude account.

Claude Code: installation and first commands for people who have never written code

Claude Code is Anthropic's command-line tool for talking to the Claude assistant directly from your computer's terminal, with access to a project's files. It is installed separately from the claude.ai web application and requires an account with a paid subscription, not the free plan.

The rest of this article follows exactly the steps you take the first time: what you need beforehand, installation on each operating system, signing in and the first useful commands.

What you need before installation

A terminal is the black or white window where you type commands instead of clicking buttons, as you may have seen in the article about the cPanel terminal. On Windows it is called PowerShell or Command Prompt, on macOS it is called Terminal, and on Linux it usually has the name of the installed graphical terminal distribution.

Before installation, check these requirements:

• Operating system: macOS 13 or newer, Windows 10 from 2018 onward or Windows Server 2019, or Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10 or Alpine Linux 3.19 for Linux.
• Computer memory: at least 4 GB RAM, on an x64 or ARM64 processor.
• Internet connection: installation and every conversation go through Anthropic's servers.
• A paid account: Claude Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or a Claude Console account with credit, because the free claude.ai plan does not include access to Claude Code.

If you already use Claude through a browser or the phone app, that account may work directly, depending on your subscription type, just as the complete Claude guide describes for the web application.

The installation automatically includes ripgrep, the fast file-search tool Claude Code uses internally. You do not need to install it separately, except on very minimal Linux distributions, where an explicit warning appears at startup.

One final detail to check before installation is the country you are working from: the service is available only in Anthropic's supported countries, listed in the official documentation, and an installation attempt from outside this list stops at the authentication step, not during download.

How to install Claude Code on your computer

Native installation is the method Anthropic recommends because it updates the tool automatically in the background, without requiring you to return to this step.

macOS, Linux and WSL

Open the terminal and copy this exact command:

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

The command downloads and runs the official installation script, then displays a confirmation message with the installed version.

Windows (PowerShell or CMD)

In PowerShell, the prompt looks like "PS C:\", and the installation command is:

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

In Command Prompt, where the prompt shows only "C:\", without "PS" in front, use these three commands instead, in order:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd
install.cmd
del install.cmd

If you receive the error "The token '&&' is not a valid statement separator", you have pasted the CMD command into a PowerShell window. On Windows, Git for Windows is recommended so Claude Code can use Bash instead of PowerShell as its shell tool.

Other installation methods

On macOS, if you already use Homebrew, a dedicated cask package is available, with the exact syntax documented on the official installation page.

On Windows, with WinGet installed, the equivalent command is:

winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode

There are also separate packages for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL and Alpine, installable with apt, dnf or apk. The practical difference is updating: native installation, through curl or irm, updates itself in the background, while Homebrew, WinGet and Linux package managers require a manual update command from time to time.

How to check the installation and sign in

After installation, confirm that everything worked with a single command, which checks the configuration files and displays warnings with solutions:

claude doctor

Authentication happens automatically the first time you start it. Open a terminal in any folder and type:

claude

The application opens your browser for authentication. Supported accounts are:

• Claude Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise, the recommended option for most users.
• Claude Console, with prepaid credit, which automatically receives a dedicated workspace for tracking costs.
• Enterprise cloud providers, such as Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry, for companies with their own infrastructure.

If you want to change accounts later, type the command below inside the session, without reinstalling anything:

/login

Your first session: the first commands you type

Open the terminal directly in the folder you want to work with, then start the session:

cd /calea/catre/proiectul-dumneavoastra
claude

The Claude Code prompt appears on screen, with the version, current model and active folder displayed above it. From here, write in Romanian or English, just as in an ordinary conversation.

For your first interaction, simple orientation questions work best:

• "what does this project do?" for a summary of the files in the folder.
• "explain the folder structure" for a quick map of the organization.
• "what can Claude Code do?" for a list of the tool's capabilities.

Claude Code reads the necessary files on its own, without you manually adding them to the conversation. When it proposes a specific modification, in the first session it asks for approval before every change, and you choose "Yes" to continue.

After the first session, the account usually enters automatic mode, in which Claude Code edits files and runs commands without asking you every time, while an internal check rejects risky actions. Press Shift+Tab at any time to switch back to manual mode, with approval for each step.

Clear requests, not short requests

A request such as "fix the error" produces poor results because the tool does not know which error you mean. A request such as "fix the login error where users see a white screen after entering an incorrect password" leads directly to the right file.

For multi-step tasks, write numbered steps in a single message rather than one long, vague sentence. Claude Code works through the steps in order and shows you the result of each.

Basic commands to remember

A few commands cover most situations in your first month of use. The ones below are typed in the terminal before starting the session or as startup options:

# pornește o sesiune interactivă în folderul curent
claude

# pornește sesiunea cu o sarcină inițială
claude "verifică fișierele din acest folder"

# rulează o singură întrebare, apoi închide sesiunea
claude -p "explică acest fișier"

# continuă cea mai recentă conversație din acest folder
claude -c

The rest are typed inside the session, after you have already started Claude Code:

# șterge istoricul conversației curente
/clear

# afișează lista completă de comenzi disponibile
/help

# închide sesiunea (sau Ctrl+D apăsat de două ori)
/exit

Common installation problems

Most installation errors come from confusion between PowerShell and CMD or missing packages on older Linux distributions.

• Syntax error with the "<" symbol: the PowerShell command was pasted into a CMD terminal, where the syntax is not recognized.
• 403 error code in curl: usually a network firewall or corporate proxy is blocking claude.ai, rather than an account problem.
• "curl: command not found" on Alpine Linux: the curl and bash packages are missing from the minimal installation and must be added separately using the distribution's package manager.
• Installation through npm does not update itself: this happens when the global npm folder does not have write permissions for the current user.
• "command not found" after installation, even though the command ran without an error: usually the terminal needs to be closed and reopened so the new path to the command is loaded.

For any error not listed above, the claude doctor command remains the first diagnostic step before looking elsewhere for a solution, because it shows exactly which part of the installation failed.

For updating and maintaining the tool, it is also worth knowing the context of the 2026 Claude Code source code leak, along with Anthropic's recommendations on safe versions to use.

What to do next in an agency or small business

Claude Code was built for writing code, but its use is not limited to programmers. In a marketing team, the tool helps with repetitive tasks that would otherwise take administrative time.

• Quick analysis of an existing project: "what technologies does this site use?" or "where is the SEO configuration file?".
• Conversational Git operations: "which files have I modified?" or "show me the last 5 commits", without memorizing Git syntax.
• Small automation tasks: checking configuration files or generating short scripts, requested in everyday language.
• Routine technical checks: "search this folder for occurrences of the site's old address" before a migration, without opening every file manually.

For those who also manage the server side, the same basic commands work just as well in an SSH session on Linux as on a personal computer, shortening the diagnosis of specific technical problems.

For content writing and marketing prompts, the features in Claude for keyword research remain useful alongside it, through the claude.ai web application, not necessarily through the command line. Recent tool updates are described in the March 2026 Claude Code update, while the basics of Claude in general are explained in what Claude AI is and how to use it.

The official installation documentation, with all options for each operating system, remains the source to check at every major update: Claude Code, the official installation guide.

Installing Claude Code takes a few minutes, and the first commands require only patience, not programming knowledge. For your marketing team, combine the tool with the prompts already used for SEO optimization, the AI prompt generator for content and the technical recommendations in technical SEO for any changes that reach the actual website.

Source references

• Documentația Claude Code: prezentare
• Documentația Claude Code: primii pași