Your First Conversation

Time to talk to Claude Code! Let's start with something simple to see how it works.

Start Claude Code

Open your terminal and navigate to any folder:

Terminal

$mkdir my-first-project && cd my-first-project

Terminal

$claude

Claude Code starts an interactive session. You'll see a prompt where you can type natural language instructions.

Try these prompts

Here are some things you can ask right away:

Ask a question: "What files are in this directory?"
Create a file: "Create a hello.js file that prints Hello World"
Run a command: "Run the hello.js file with node"
Modify code: "Change it to accept a name as a command line argument"

✅Tip

Notice how specific those prompts were. "Create a hello.js file that prints Hello World" is much better than "make me a file." This is the golden rule of prompting: if you showed your instruction to a colleague and they'd be confused, Claude will be confused too. Be clear, be direct, say exactly what you want.

💡Info

Notice how Claude Code doesn't just show you code — it actually creates and modifies files on your system. It asks for permission before running commands.

Understanding the flow

When you give Claude Code an instruction, it:

Thinks about what needs to be done
Reads relevant files if needed
Plans its approach
Executes — writing files, running commands
Reports what it did

✅Tip

Claude Code handles ambiguity, but specific prompts get better results on the first try. "Add a GET endpoint at /api/users that returns a JSON array" will land closer to what you want than "Build me a REST API." When in doubt, be specific.

Key shortcuts

Ctrl+C — cancel the current operation
/help — see available commands
/clear — clear conversation history
Up arrow — cycle through previous prompts

Great work! You've had your first conversation with Claude Code. Next, we'll scaffold a real project.