2Getting hands on

Claude Code setup

2 min read273 words

Time to get Claude Code running locally. There are three installation paths depending on your platform, and first-run authentication happens in the terminal. If you are deploying against AWS Bedrock or Google Cloud Vertex instead of the default Anthropic API, there are two extra links at the end.

Full reference docs live at code.claude.com/docs/en/quickstart.

1. Install Claude Code

Pick the command for your platform.

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install --cask claude-code

macOS, Linux, or WSL:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows (CMD):

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

2. Start Claude Code and authenticate

From any terminal, run:

claude

On first launch, Claude Code will walk you through authentication. Once you are signed in, the same command is how you start every session from here on — always from the directory of the project you want to work on.

3. Alternative backends (optional)

If your organisation requires you to run Claude Code against AWS Bedrock or Google Cloud Vertex instead of the default Anthropic API, there is extra setup:

AWS Bedrock: code.claude.com/docs/en/amazon-bedrock
Google Cloud Vertex: code.claude.com/docs/en/google-vertex-ai

Everything else in this course works identically across all three backends.

Key Takeaways

1Claude Code installs in one command per platform — Homebrew on macOS, a curl-piped shell script on macOS/Linux/WSL, or a curl-downloaded CMD installer on Windows.
2Running `claude` from a terminal starts the assistant; the first run handles authentication automatically.
3AWS Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex are supported as alternative backends with a small amount of additional setup documented at code.claude.com.

Foundations Self-Assessment

Project setup