Install Claude Code, Step by Step

About five minutes. We hold your hand the whole way.

By the end of this lesson

You'll have Claude Code installed on your own computer.

We do this once. Follow along exactly — nothing to understand yet, just steps to copy. First, open your computer's terminal. Mac: press Cmd+Space, type Terminal, press Enter. Windows: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter. A plain window with some text and a blinking cursor opens — that's the whole 'terminal'.

Good news: the install is ONE pasted line. (Older guides tell you to install something called Node first — that's the old way; you don't need it.) Copy the line for YOUR system with its copy button, click inside the terminal window, paste — Mac: Cmd+V; Windows: Ctrl+V or just right-click — and press Enter.

Step 1 · Mac — install with one line

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

Paste, press Enter, wait until the moving text stops and the cursor comes back. If it asks for your Mac password: typing it shows NOTHING on screen — that's normal, type it blind and press Enter.

Step 1 · Windows — install with one line

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

Paste into PowerShell, press Enter, wait until it finishes. If Windows pops up 'Do you want to allow this app to make changes?' — click Yes. Then CLOSE PowerShell and open it again (same as before), so it notices the new program.

Step 2 · start it

claude

Type this, press Enter — and here's the exact first-run sequence so nothing surprises you. (a) It may ask you to pick a color theme: use the ARROW KEYS to highlight one, press Enter — any choice is fine. (b) It asks how to log in: choose 'Claude account with subscription' — NOT the 'Console' option, even though it sounds official; Console is a different, pay-per-use thing and your Pro plan won't be used. (c) Your browser opens — log in with the account from the last lesson and approve. (d) Back in the terminal, it may ask 'Do you trust the files in this folder?' — that's it being polite about where it's allowed to work; choose Yes. You're in.

Do it now — tick as you go

0/5

!If a step errors out

Claude Code isn't installed yet — but you're not alone: paste any error into the chat AI you already use (claude.ai in the browser, ChatGPT, DeepSeek) and it'll walk you through. This is the one step where your old chat habit is exactly the right tool. The known snags: (Windows) 'running scripts is disabled' — a safety default; type Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned, press Enter, answer Y, retry. (Windows) it doesn't know the word 'claude' after installing — close PowerShell and open it again. (Work laptop) company-managed computers can block installs — use your personal one for this course. (Old computer) Claude Code wants a reasonably current system (macOS 13+ / Windows 10+); on something older, ask your chat AI whether your system is supported. And if the one-liner won't run at all, there's an older install route via Node + npm — ask your chat AI to walk you through it.

✓That's the hard part — and it wasn't hard

If Claude greets you in the terminal, you just did the thing 99% of people are too scared to try. It's installed. Forever. Next: say hello.

Author

Evgeny Arsentyev

PhD · Chief Product Officer at a healthtech company

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