Just a Text Window
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Opening the Terminal for the First Time

The terminal is the most intimidating thing that isn't actually intimidating. It's just a text window where you type something, press Enter, and your computer responds.

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The terminal is the most intimidating thing that isn't actually intimidating.

You've seen it in movies. Green text scrolling on a black screen. Hackers typing at impossible speeds. It looks like you need a computer science degree just to open it.

The terminal is a text window. You type something, press Enter, and your computer responds. Like texting your computer.

Before We Start

I'm assuming you've used some form of AI chat before. ChatGPT, claude.ai, or something similar. If anything in this guide isn't clear, you can always use your own words to ask your AI of choice. I'll provide prompts that should work, but sometimes things look slightly different depending on your exact version, operating system, or which model you're using. Don't let small differences stop you.

Opening It on Your Computer

Windows Start menu showing PowerShell search results

The steps are different depending on what computer you use. Find your system below.

Windows:

  1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard (bottom-left, has the Windows logo)
  2. Type PowerShell
  3. Click Windows PowerShell from the results

Mac:

  1. Press Cmd + Space (opens Spotlight search)
  2. Type Terminal
  3. Press Enter

Linux:

  1. Press Ctrl + Alt + T
  2. That's it. Linux makes this easy

You should now see a window with a blinking cursor. No buttons. No menus. No icons. Just a cursor, waiting for you to type something.

This is the terminal. You're already using it.

Windows PowerShell terminal window

What You're Looking At

The blinking cursor sits after some text that looks something like this:

C:\Users\YourName>

or on Mac/Linux:

yourname@computer:~$

That text tells you where you "are" on your computer, like the address bar in a file explorer. It shows which folder you're currently in.

Don't worry about it. Just know that the cursor is where you type.

Three Things to Know

You could spend years learning terminal commands. You don't need to. For Claude Code, you need exactly three things:

1. Type, press Enter, and sometimes give permission

That's how you tell the terminal to do something. Type text, press Enter. The terminal runs your instruction and shows the result. Sometimes it'll ask for permission to do something. You'll see prompts asking you to confirm or type your password. That's normal.

2. Copy and paste works

On Windows, right-click to paste. What I use most often. Or use Ctrl + V (in newer PowerShell, this works).

On Mac, Cmd + V works like everywhere else.

On Linux, Ctrl + Shift + V (note the Shift).

You'll copy commands from this guide and paste them into the terminal. Perfectly valid workflow.

3. Type exit to leave

When you're done, type exit and press Enter. The window closes. Nothing breaks. You can always open a new terminal tomorrow.

Your First Command

Let's prove this thing actually works. Type this and press Enter:

echo hello

Your terminal should respond with:

hello

That's it. You told your computer to say "hello," and it did. The echo command repeats back whatever you type after it. Not very useful on its own, but it proves something important: you just gave your computer an instruction through the terminal, and it worked.

You're not a hacker. But you're not intimidated either. Right where you should be.

One More Thing to Try

Let's see what files are in your current folder. This is useful because Claude Code works with the files in whatever folder you start it from.

Windows (PowerShell):

dir

Mac/Linux:

ls

You should see a list of files and folders. Maybe Documents, Desktop, Downloads. Your home folder. Later, we'll navigate to a specific project folder before starting Claude Code. But for now, you've proven two things:

  1. The terminal is not scary
  2. You can type commands and get results

How I Started

First time I opened a terminal, I saw a black window with a blinking cursor and thought I'd broken something. I hadn't. I just didn't know what to type. And honestly? I still don't. :-)

That feeling of "what do I do now?" is completely normal. It goes away fast. By the time you finish the next chapter, you'll have Claude Code installed and you'll never think about the terminal as scary again. It'll just be the place where you talk to your AI assistant.

Next up: installing Claude Code. One command. Seriously.