Angel Espinoza

Getting Started: The Terminal

Episode 1 of this series had a line I skipped past on purpose: what a terminal actually is gets its own episode later in this series. Here it is.

What it actually is

A terminal is a window that runs commands instead of clicking things. You type a line, press Enter, and something happens: a program starts, a file gets copied, a folder gets listed. That is the whole idea. Everything past that is detail.

Why this one is not optional

With most developer tools, the terminal is one option among several, and you could click through the program's own interface instead if you preferred. Claude Code does not offer that choice. The terminal is not a companion to Claude Code, it is Claude Code. Every command from episode 1, the npm install line included, ran there because there was nowhere else to run it.

Which one to open

Windows, Mac, and Linux already ship one, so there is nothing to install here, unlike episode 1's list. Windows has Windows Terminal, or Command Prompt if that is what is pinned to your taskbar. Mac has Terminal, in Applications, then Utilities. Linux has whatever terminal came with the desktop environment. Open the one already on your machine. None of the commands in this series need anything fancier.

The two ideas that matter

A terminal is always "in" some folder, called the current directory, and a command acts on that folder unless told otherwise. Typing a command and pressing Enter runs it, and the text that scrolls back afterward is the program talking to you. cd changes which folder you are in. That is close to the whole toolkit a newcomer needs to start.

The commands you'll actually type

A handful of commands cover most of what actually happens in there.

  • cd foldername moves into a subfolder, cd .. moves up one level, and cd\ on Windows (cd / on Mac and Linux) jumps to the top.
  • dir lists what is in the current folder. Mac and Linux call the same thing ls.
  • cls clears the screen. Mac and Linux use clear.
  • mkdir foldername creates a new folder, the same command everywhere.
  • The up arrow recalls the last command typed, on every platform, so little needs retyping.

Outside of running Claude Code itself, that is nearly everything I actually type.

Not just the terminal

None of this locks you into a bare command window forever. Claude Code also runs as a native extension inside VS Code, inside Cursor (a VS Code fork built around AI coding), and inside JetBrains IDEs. That is not a different choice from the one above, it is the same one wearing a different window: the VS Code extension bundles its own copy of the CLI, and the JetBrains plugin needs that same CLI installed on your machine to work at all. Open a panel instead of a bare window if you prefer one. The terminal underneath does not go away, it just gets a nicer window built around it.

Open one, type the line from episode 1, npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code, and press Enter. That is the entire on-ramp.

Be Better - Open one and start typing.