Already installed it? Here’s the first session, including the one thing that surprises people on day one.
1. Start inside the project
cd /path/to/your/project
claude
What it does: opens an interactive session scoped to that folder — which is exactly the code it can see. Starting it in your home directory is the most common first mistake.
2. Check the permission mode
Look at the status bar before you ask for anything. On Pro, Max and Team plans, interactive terminal sessions start in auto mode, where a classifier reviews actions instead of you and Claude edits most files and runs most commands without asking. Other plans get Manual mode, which prompts.
Press Shift+Tab to cycle to ⏸ manual mode on if you’d rather approve each step while
learning. See permissions.
3. Ask before you edit
what does this project do?
What it does: has Claude read the files it needs and summarize. You don’t have to paste anything. It’s also a free sanity check that you’re in the right directory.
4. Give it one concrete task
Add a dark-mode toggle to the navbar and persist the choice in localStorage.
What it does: states the goal, not the steps. Be specific about the outcome and let it choose the implementation — vague prompts like “improve this codebase” trigger broad, expensive scanning.
5. Review before moving on
Read the diff. Run the tests. Then ask for the next thing. One task at a time, finished and verified, beats three half-done ones in one conversation.
Verify it worked
Run the app, not just the tests. A change that compiles and reads correctly can still be wrong, and checking separates useful sessions from ones you unpick later.
Three things worth knowing on day one
- Plan first for anything non-trivial. Prefix a prompt with
/planto get a proposal you can correct before a file changes — see plan mode. - It reads the repo. Point at paths with
@instead of pasting files. Escstops it. Interrupt the moment it heads the wrong way; the work so far is kept.
It’s an agent, not a chat: it plans, calls a tool, reads the result, and repeats. Next: the keyboard shortcuts that make it fast.
Source: Claude Code quickstart.