You’ve installed Claude Code. You’ve opened your terminal. Now what? If you’re staring at a blinking cursor wondering what to type, this guide is for you.
We onboard new team members to Claude Code regularly at Markana Media, and the pattern is always the same: the first 30 minutes feel unfamiliar, and then something clicks. By the end of the first day, nobody wants to go back. Here’s how to get to that click as fast as possible.
Your First Claude Code Session
Open your terminal, navigate to any project directory, and type claude. That’s it. Claude Code starts an interactive session where you can type natural language instructions.
Start simple. Try these commands in order:
explain this projectClaude Code reads your file structure, package files, and key source files, then gives you a clear summary of what the project does, what technologies it uses, and how it’s organized. This is the fastest way to understand any new codebase.
what does the login function do?Ask about specific functionality. Claude Code searches your codebase, finds the relevant code, and explains it in plain language. This works for functions, classes, API endpoints, database schemas — anything in your code.
find all the places where we handle user authenticationClaude Code can trace concepts across your entire project. It doesn’t just do text search — it understands code flow, imports, and relationships between files.
Making Your First Code Change
Once you’re comfortable asking questions, try making a change. Start with something small:
add a 404 page that matches the style of the rest of the siteClaude Code will:
- Read your existing pages to understand the design patterns
- Create a new 404 page file that matches your conventions
- Show you the changes before applying them
- Ask for your approval before writing to disk
This approval step is important. Claude Code always shows you what it’s about to do and waits for your confirmation. You’re in control — it won’t modify files without your permission.
As you gain confidence, you can adjust the permission level. Claude Code has different permission modes that control how much autonomy it gets, from asking before every action to auto-approving safe operations like file reads and searches.
Essential Commands and Shortcuts
Claude Code has built-in commands (prefixed with /) that speed up common workflows:
/help — Shows all available commands and keyboard shortcuts. This is your lifeline when you’re starting out.
/clear — Clears the current conversation and starts fresh. Useful when you’re switching tasks or the context has gotten cluttered.
/compact — Summarizes the current conversation to free up context space. Use this during long sessions when Claude Code starts losing track of earlier decisions.
/commit — Has Claude Code review your changes and create a git commit with a descriptive message. It stages the right files, writes the message, and handles the commit.
/review — Asks Claude Code to review your current code changes and provide feedback, similar to a pull request review.
For keyboard shortcuts, Escape cancels the current operation, and Ctrl+C exits the session entirely.
Understanding How Claude Code Thinks
The biggest mindset shift for beginners is understanding that Claude Code is not a search engine or a code snippet generator. It’s an agent that plans and executes multi-step tasks.
When you give it a task, Claude Code goes through a thinking process:
- Reads — It searches your codebase for relevant files, understanding the current state
- Plans — It decides which files to modify, what to create, and in what order
- Executes — It writes code, runs commands, and checks results
- Verifies — It runs tests, checks for errors, and iterates if something fails
You can watch this process happen in real time. Claude Code shows you its thinking, the files it reads, the commands it runs, and the changes it proposes. This transparency is what makes it trustworthy — you always know what it’s doing and why.
A practical tip: be specific about the outcome you want, not the steps to get there. Instead of “open the file src/auth.js and add a function called validateToken on line 45,” try “add token validation to the auth module so expired tokens return a 401.” Claude Code is better at planning the approach when you describe the goal.
Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
After onboarding dozens of people onto Claude Code, we’ve seen the same mistakes come up repeatedly:
Being too vague. “Make it better” gives Claude Code nothing to work with. “Improve the loading speed of the dashboard by lazy-loading the chart components” gives it a clear target.
Not setting up CLAUDE.md. Without a project instruction file, Claude Code has to guess your conventions every time. Spend 10 minutes writing a basic CLAUDE.md with your tech stack, file organization, and coding standards. It pays for itself in the first hour.
Trying to do too much at once. Claude Code handles complex tasks well, but as a beginner, break things into steps. “Add user registration” is better approached as: first add the registration form, verify it works, then add email verification, verify that works, then add the welcome email flow.
Not reading the output. Claude Code explains what it’s doing as it works. Read the explanations. They teach you about your own codebase and about coding patterns you might not have known.
Ignoring the plan mode. For bigger tasks, Claude Code can create a plan first before writing any code. This is activated by asking it to “plan” or by using the plan mode feature. Review the plan, give feedback, and only then let it execute.
Practical Exercises to Build Your Skills
The best way to learn Claude Code is by using it on real tasks. Here are exercises we give to our new team members, ordered by difficulty:
Level 1 — Exploration: Open a project you know well. Ask Claude Code to explain different parts of it. Compare its explanations with your own understanding. This builds trust and shows you how it reads code.
Level 2 — Small edits: Fix a known bug or add a small feature you’ve been putting off. Something that would take you 15-30 minutes manually. Watch how Claude Code approaches it.
Level 3 — Full features: Ask Claude Code to build something new — a contact form, an API endpoint, a data export feature. Let it handle the entire process from planning to implementation.
Level 4 — Workflow automation: Set up a CLAUDE.md file, create custom commands for your most common tasks, and connect an MCP server for an external tool you use daily.
If you’re a marketer or business owner who wants to use Claude Code but doesn’t have a coding background, that’s exactly what our AI automation services are built for. We set up the tools, configure the workflows, and teach your team how to use them effectively. You focus on the business outcomes — we handle the technical setup.