Why This Matters#

Claude Code is installed — great! Now you need to launch it and sign in to your account. Without authorization, Claude Code won’t work — it needs to verify that you have a subscription. In this lesson, we’ll walk through the first launch from start to finish.

Step 1. Get a Claude Subscription#

Claude Code requires a paid subscription. Here are the options:

How to subscribe:

1. Go to claude.com/pricing
2. Choose a suitable plan
3. Sign up (email + password) or log in if you already have an account
4. Complete the payment

You can also use the Anthropic Console (console.anthropic.com) — a pay-per-use API option. It’s geared toward developers, but for beginners a Claude Pro subscription is simpler.

Step 2. Launch Claude Code#

Open a terminal and navigate to your project folder:

cd ~/my-project

cd (change directory) — a command for navigating to a folder. ~/my-project is the path to the folder. The ~ symbol means your home directory.

If you don’t have a project yet, create a test folder:

mkdir ~/test-project
cd ~/test-project

mkdir (make directory) — a command for creating a new folder.

Now launch Claude Code:

claude

Step 3. Sign In#

On first launch, Claude Code will ask you to authorize. You’ll see a message asking you to choose a sign-in method.

Signing in with a Claude subscription (recommended)#

1. Select Claude.ai account
2. A browser window will open with the sign-in page
3. Enter the email and password for your Claude account
4. Confirm the sign-in
5. Return to the terminal — you’ll see the Claude Code welcome screen

Signing in with Anthropic Console#

1. Select Anthropic Console
2. Sign in at console.anthropic.com
3. Claude Code will automatically create a “Claude Code” workspace for tracking usage

After your first sign-in, you won’t need to sign in again — your credentials are saved. If you want to switch accounts later, use the /login command.

Step 4. The Welcome Screen#

After a successful sign-in, you’ll see the welcome screen:

╭──────────────────────────────────────────╮
│           Welcome to Claude Code         │
│                                          │
│  Type a message to start chatting.       │
│  Type /help for available commands.      │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

It shows:

• Information about your session
• Recent conversations (if any)
• Latest updates

Step 5. Your First Conversation#

Try asking Claude a simple question. Just type your text and press Enter:

what can you do?

Claude will respond with a list of its capabilities. Try another one:

create a file hello.txt with the text "Hello, World!"

Claude Code will:

1. Show what it plans to do
2. Ask for your permission
3. Create the file after your confirmation

That’s it — you just gave AI your first task! 🎉

Useful Commands to Get Started#

Common Issues#

Lesson Summary#

✅ Working with Claude Code requires a paid subscription (from $20/mo)
✅ First sign-in is through the browser, after that it remembers you
✅ Launch with the claude command in the terminal, from your project folder
✅ Claude Code works as a conversation: you describe a task, it executes
✅ The /help command is your best friend when starting out

Next lesson: Terminal Basics →