Your First Session with Claude Code
From zero to a working project in one sitting. No prior coding experience required.
What You Will Build
By the end of this guide, you will have opened a terminal, started Claude Code, given it an instruction, and watched it build something real. You will have a folder on your computer with a working project inside it.
This is not a demo. You are going to do this yourself, on your own machine, right now.
What You Need
A computer running macOS, Windows, or Linux. An internet connection. A Claude account with Claude Code access. That is it. If you do not have Claude Code installed yet, visit docs.anthropic.com and follow the installation instructions. It takes about five minutes.
Open Your Terminal
On macOS, press Command + Space, type "Terminal", and hit Enter. On Windows, search for "Terminal" or "PowerShell" in the Start menu. On Linux, you already know.
You should see a dark window with a blinking cursor. This is your command line. Everything you build starts here.
Create a Project Folder
Type the following commands one at a time, pressing Enter after each:
mkdir my-first-project
cd my-first-project
You just created a new folder called "my-first-project" and moved into it. This is where your project will live.
Start Claude Code
Type the following and press Enter:
claude
Claude Code will start up. You will see a prompt where you can type instructions. This is your interface — you tell Claude what to build, and it builds it.
Give Your First Instruction
Now comes the important part. Do not just say "make me a website." Be specific about what you want. Describe the thing you want to exist. Here is an example:
Create a simple personal homepage with my name, a short bio, and three links to my favorite websites. Use a clean, minimal design with a dark background and light text. Make it a single HTML file that I can open in a browser.Replace the details with your own — your name, your bio, your links. The point is to describe something specific. Not "make a website" but "make THIS website with THESE things on it."
Press Enter and watch. Claude will create files, write code, and explain what it is doing. Let it work.
Open Your Creation
When Claude finishes, it will have created an HTML file in your project folder. Open it:
open index.html
Your browser will open with a real webpage that you described and Claude built. This is yours. You can edit the prompt, ask Claude to change things, add features, or start over with a different idea.
Ask for a Change
Now give a follow-up instruction. This is where the conversation model matters — Claude remembers what it just built:
Add a section below the bio that shows three recent projects with titles and one-sentence descriptions. Make each one a card with a subtle border.Claude will modify the existing file. Refresh your browser to see the change. This is the conversation loop: describe what you want, watch it get built, refine, repeat.
This is not vibe coding. You described exactly what you wanted. You knew what a card layout was, what a bio section looks like, what a minimal design means. The curriculum teaches you these concepts. The approach shows you how to express them as instructions.
What Just Happened
You created a project folder. You started an AI coding tool. You gave it a specific, intentional instruction. You saw the result. You iterated on it.
This is the entire Zero Vector workflow in miniature. Every project you build — no matter how complex — follows this same loop. The only things that change are the specificity of your instructions and the sophistication of what you ask for.
Next: set up a proper project with version control, a package manager, and a CLAUDE.md file that tells Claude Code about your project conventions.
Go Deeper
- Claude Code Documentation — Official docs for Claude Code setup and usage.
- The Terminal (Curriculum) — Understand what a terminal actually is and how it works.
- File Systems (Curriculum) — How files and folders work on your computer.