How to Use Claude Code

Claude Code isn’t a chat window in your browser. It opens in your terminal, reads your project’s files on its own, edits them, runs the tests and commits. Say “fix that bug” and the expectation is that it finds the file and changes it. This guide walks the path from install to your first code change, and gives a straight answer on the free-version question 🧑‍💻 The Short Answer If you only have a minute Install (Windows PowerShell): irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex Install (macOS, Linux, WSL): curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash Start it: cd into your project and type claude No free tier: you need a Claude subscription (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) or a prepaid Console account First move: run /init to generate a CLAUDE.md for the project What Is Claude Code? Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent for the terminal. What separates it from a regular AI assistant is that it doesn’t only produce text. It has tools for reading files, writing files, running commands and searching the web, and it decides on its own which to use and in what order. ...

The list that pops up when you hit / in Claude Code is intimidating at first. A hundred-odd commands, half of them named in a way that gives nothing away, and your own custom commands mixed in with the built-ins. You don’t need all of them. Ten commands cover almost everything you do day to day, and the rest is reference material you look up when the moment arrives. This page gives you both: the ten first, then the full list grouped by what it’s for 🧰 ...