Install Claude Code, create your first CLAUDE.md, and start building with AI in under 5 minutes.
Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI for Claude. It runs in your terminal and gives Claude full access to your codebase — reading files, writing code, running commands, and remembering context across sessions. Unlike ChatGPT or web-based tools, Claude Code works directly in your development environment.
Open your terminal and run: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code. This installs the CLI globally. You need Node.js 18+ installed. Once installed, navigate to any project directory and run claude to start a session.
The CLAUDE.md file is your AI brain's operating manual. Create it in your project root. It should contain your project's identity, rules, architecture decisions, and conventions. Think of it as an employee handbook for your AI — without it, every session starts from zero.
With Claude Code running and CLAUDE.md in place, you now have a persistent AI engineering partner. Ask it to read your codebase, write tests, refactor code, or explain complex logic. The key difference from prompting: Claude Code understands your entire project context, not just the code you paste.
Most developers use AI by copy-pasting code into chat windows. Claude Code eliminates that friction. It reads your files directly, understands relationships between modules, and can make changes across multiple files in a single conversation. Combined with skills and memory, it becomes a system — not just a tool.
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