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The written version of this session, with the commands and templates to copy.
This is the path the academy teaches by default. Claude Code is the agent the rest of the curriculum is written against, and the Claude Pro plan is the one subscription it needs.
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. It runs in a terminal window, not a browser tab, and it can read, write, and edit files in a folder you point it at. This lesson installs it on your Mac or Windows PC, signs you in, and has it create one file so you know it actually works.
If a terminal is not where you want to start, the desktop app is the same agent in a window you can click, and that is the surface we point beginners at first. "Path A: Claude Code in the desktop app" in the Pick Your Agent course walks through it. Come back here when you want the terminal, which most later sessions assume.
By the end you have a working agent on your machine and a file it created for you.
Sign in at claude.com and confirm your plan is Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise. Look in Settings for the plan name. Free Claude.ai is not enough for this. If you are not sure what you are on, check now, before you install anything.
Keep that browser tab logged in. The first time you run Claude Code, it opens a browser to finish login.
You are not installing an app from a store. You paste one command into a terminal window.
Mac: press Command + Space, type Terminal, press Enter. A window opens with a blinking cursor, lines usually start with % or $.
Windows: click Start, type PowerShell, open Windows PowerShell (not Command Prompt). The line should start with PS C:\Users\.... If you only see C:\Users\... with no PS, you are in Command Prompt. Close it and open PowerShell.
Leave this window open. You will paste one command into it.
Do not paste a command into a terminal because a page told you to. Before you run anything below, check it.
claude.ai. Nothing else.claude.ai, chatgpt.com, or x.ai. If you see a command anywhere claiming to be from this academy that points somewhere else, stop and do not run it.This takes thirty seconds and it is the habit that matters more than the install itself.
Copy only the line for your operating system. Paste it into Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows). Press Enter. Text will scroll. Wait until it finishes.
Mac:
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
Windows (PowerShell):
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
On native Windows, Git for Windows is recommended so Claude Code can use Bash. If you skip it, Claude Code still runs and uses PowerShell instead.
After the install: close the terminal window completely, open a new one, then check the command exists:
claude --version
If the new window says the command is not found, the installer added itself to PATH but this window was opened before that happened. A fresh window almost always fixes it.
ai-setup-test (Finder or File Explorer is fine).claude and press Enter.Create a file named hello.txt in this folder. The file should contain the sentence: I am set up.
Approve the file write if Claude Code asks. Open the folder in Finder or File Explorer. You should see hello.txt. Open it. You should see that sentence. You did not type the file by hand. The agent did.
claude again and type /login if it offers that command.claude --version again.C:\Users\... prompt with no PS: that is Command Prompt, not PowerShell. Close it and open PowerShell instead.You can open a new terminal, cd into a folder, run claude, and get a reply. The hello.txt file exists on disk with the right sentence in it. That is a complete, working Claude Code setup on your computer.
Template included: Members get a printable one-page Claude Code setup card: both OS install commands, the verify checks from Step 3, and the exact first prompt to send. Find it in your member dashboard under Templates.
Short on time? Agentic Quarks will implement this end to end, wired into your stack, and hand you the keys.
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. It runs in a terminal, not a browser, and it can read, write, and edit files in a folder you point it at. In the next twenty minutes, you install it, sign in, and watch it create a file.
Before you install anything, sign in at claude dot com and check Settings for your plan. You need Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise. The free Claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code. Keep that tab open, since the first run needs it to log in.
Open the right window before you paste anything. On a Mac, press Command plus Space and type Terminal. On Windows, open PowerShell, not Command Prompt. You are not installing an app from a store. You paste one command into this window and press Enter.
Do not paste a command into a terminal because a page told you to. Read it yourself, line by line. Confirm the domain is claude dot ai, nothing else. That habit matters more than the install, and once Claude Code is running, it asks before it changes anything, so keep that permission prompt on.
Copy the line for your system, paste it into your terminal, and press Enter. Text scrolls while Claude Code installs itself. When it finishes, close the window completely, open a fresh one, and run claude dash dash version to confirm it worked.
Make a folder called ai-setup-test, go there in the terminal, and type claude. The first launch opens your browser to approve login. Then send the exact prompt: create a file named hello dot t x t containing the sentence, I am set up.
Open the ai-setup-test folder. hello dot t x t is sitting there, and you did not type it. Open it and you see the sentence, I am set up. That is the moment this stops being theory. An agent on your machine did real work.
You are done when you can open a fresh terminal, run claude, and get a reply. The hello.txt file needs to exist with the right sentence inside it. Members get the printable setup card in the template vault.
You now have a real AI coding agent running on your own machine, not a demo. Every other lesson in this academy builds on this install. Next session, you set up Codex, ChatGPT's coding agent, so you have both tools ready when you need them.
Who this is for, what you need, and your first AI agent installed
7 sessions, 17 min of video, about 1.9 hours to do, 7 free.
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