Part 5 of 5

Installing Claude Code

It looks like a developer tool, and it is one — but it's also one of the best plain-language assistants you can put on your computer. You don't need to write a line of code. Here's how to get it running.

Not just for programmers

Because it can work directly with the files and folders on your computer, Claude Code can do a lot of librarian work that a chat window can't — for example:

Rename or organize hundreds of files at once Turn a spreadsheet into a clean report Build the runbooks from Part 1 Tidy a messy folder of documents

First, the scary part that isn't scary. Claude Code runs in the terminal — a plain text window where you type a command and press enter. That's the whole concept. You'll use it about four times to install, and after that you mostly just talk to Claude in plain English.

I'm on:

Windows: one worthwhile detour first — install WSL

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) lets your PC run a Linux environment right alongside Windows. It matters because nearly all software-development tools are built with Linux in mind. If you install Claude Code inside WSL and keep your projects in its file system, your work stays portable — the day you want to publish a code repository or move your site to another host, it'll travel far more smoothly.

This is the most technical moment on the whole site, and it's optional — you can skip it and use the PowerShell path below. But if you think you might grow into real development, it's worth doing once. Open PowerShell as administrator and run this; Windows will guide you through a restart:

PowerShell (as administrator) 
wsl --install

After it restarts, open your new Ubuntu terminal (search "Ubuntu" in Start). From here on, do everything in that Ubuntu window — and follow the steps below using the macOS / Linux command, not the PowerShell one.

Lean on your AI for this part. Honestly, this is how I got through it: I let my AI assistant walk me through the install, and whenever I hit an error message, I pasted it straight into the chat and asked what to do next. You don't have to understand every line — you just have to be willing to copy, paste, and ask.

1

Open your terminal

Press ⌘ + Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal, and hit enter. A small window opens — that's it.

Click Start, type PowerShell, and press enter. (Tip: right-click it and choose "Run as administrator" the first time.) If you installed WSL above, open your Ubuntu terminal instead — and use the macOS / Linux command in the next step.

2

Paste the one-line installer

Copy the line for your system, paste it into the terminal, and press enter. It downloads and sets up Claude Code for you.

Terminal — macOS 
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
PowerShell — Windows 
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
3

Start it and sign in

Type claude and press enter. The first time, it opens your browser to sign in to your Claude account — pricing in Tools I Use.

Terminal 
claude
4

Point it at a folder and just talk

Open the folder you want to work in, start Claude, and describe what you need in plain English. To work on the files on your Desktop, for instance:

Terminal — macOS 
cd ~/Desktop
claude
PowerShell — Windows 
cd ~\Desktop
claude

Then just type, e.g. "Rename every PDF here to include its publication year." Claude will tell you what it's about to do before it does it.

Install steps change as the tool evolves. If a command doesn't work, check the official install guide at docs.claude.com/claude-code for the current version — and remember Claude Code itself is great at troubleshooting its own setup if you paste in the error.