2  Installing Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, powerful code editor that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. We’ll use it as our home base for working with Claude Code.

Why VS Code?

You could use Claude Code from any terminal, but VS Code provides:

  • An integrated terminal (so everything is in one window)
  • File browsing (easy to see what Claude creates/modifies)
  • Syntax highlighting (code is easier to read)
  • Extensions (additional features we might use later)

2.1 Download and Install

2.1.1 macOS

  1. Go to code.visualstudio.com
  2. Click the big Download for Mac button
  3. Open the downloaded .zip file
  4. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to your Applications folder
  5. Open VS Code from Applications (or Spotlight: press Cmd + Space, type “Visual Studio Code”)
First Launch on Mac

macOS might say “Visual Studio Code is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” Click Open.

2.1.2 Windows

  1. Go to code.visualstudio.com
  2. Click Download for Windows
  3. Run the downloaded .exe installer
  4. Accept the license agreement
  5. Important: On the “Select Additional Tasks” screen, check:
    • ✅ Add “Open with Code” action to Windows Explorer file context menu
    • ✅ Add “Open with Code” action to Windows Explorer directory context menu
    • ✅ Add to PATH (this is crucial for terminal access)
  6. Click Install, then Finish
  7. Open VS Code from the Start menu

2.1.3 Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

Open a terminal and run:

# Download the .deb package
wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpg
sudo install -D -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'
rm -f packages.microsoft.gpg

# Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install code

Or download the .deb file from code.visualstudio.com and install with:

sudo dpkg -i <downloaded-file>.deb

2.2 Quick Tour of VS Code

When you first open VS Code, you’ll see something like this:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  File  Edit  Selection  View  Go  Run  Terminal  Help       │
├─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│         │                                                   │
│ EXPLORER│              Welcome Tab                          │
│         │                                                   │
│ (files) │    Start: New File, Open Folder, Clone Repo      │
│         │    Recent: (your recent projects)                 │
│         │                                                   │
├─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                             │
│                    (Terminal appears here)                  │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key areas:

  • Explorer (left sidebar): Shows your files and folders
  • Editor (center): Where you view and edit files
  • Terminal (bottom): Where we’ll run Claude Code

2.3 Opening the Terminal

The terminal is where we’ll spend most of our time. To open it:

  • Mac: Press Ctrl + ` (control + backtick) or go to View → Terminal
  • Windows/Linux: Press Ctrl + ` or go to View → Terminal

You should see a command prompt appear at the bottom of the window:

Mac/Linux:

username@computer ~ %

Windows (PowerShell):

PS C:\Users\username>
Terminal Basics

The terminal is just a text-based way to interact with your computer. You type commands and press Enter to run them. Don’t worry if it feels unfamiliar—Claude Code will handle most of the typing.

2.4 Create a Projects Folder

Let’s create a folder where we’ll keep all our projects. In the terminal:

Mac/Linux:

mkdir -p ~/Projects
cd ~/Projects

Windows (PowerShell):

mkdir ~\Projects -Force
cd ~\Projects

Now let’s open this folder in VS Code. Go to File → Open Folder and select the Projects folder you just created.

2.5 Verify Everything Works

Let’s make sure your terminal is working. Type this command and press Enter:

echo "Hello from the terminal!"

You should see:

Hello from the terminal!

If you see that message, you’re ready to continue.

2.6 Next Steps

Your editor is ready. Next, we’ll set up your Anthropic account to get access to Claude.

Continue to Creating an Anthropic Account.