Setup Guide

Before you start the course, you need a few things in place. This takes about 15 minutes.

What you need

Paid

Claude Pro subscription — Claude Code requires it ($20/month)

Free accounts

GitHub — create one if you don't have it
Vercel — sign up with your GitHub account

Your design

During the course, you'll drop a design into the chat for Claude to build. You can use our starter design or bring your own.

Open the starter design in Figma → take a screenshot of the widget → save it somewhere you'll find it.

That's it. The course will tell you when to use it.

Open your terminal

This course runs in the terminal — that's where Claude Code lives. Never used one before? whatthecli.com explains it in 2 minutes.

Mac: Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.
Windows: Press the Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter.

Keep this window open — you'll use it for every step below.

Installation

1Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for Mac — it lets you install developer tools with one command. Paste this into Terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Follow the prompts (you'll need to enter your Mac password). This also installs Git automatically.

After it finishes, read the output carefully — Homebrew may ask you to run two extra commands to add it to your PATH. Copy and paste those commands before continuing.

2Install Node.js and GitHub CLI

brew install node gh

This installs both in one go. Verify they work:

node --version

gh --version

3Install Claude Code

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

Close and reopen Terminal. Then run:

claude

A browser window will open — sign in with your Anthropic account and return to the terminal.

This step is just to authenticate. You can close Claude after signing in — the course will launch it in the right folder later.

4Install Vercel CLI

npm install -g vercel

Then log in:

vercel login

A browser window will open — sign in with the account you created at vercel.com.

5Authenticate GitHub CLI

gh auth login

Choose GitHub.com → HTTPS → Login with a web browser. Follow the prompts.

1Install Node.js

Download and install from nodejs.org — choose the LTS version (the big green button). Run the installer with all default settings.

Close and reopen PowerShell. Then verify:

node --version

npm --version

Both should print a version number.

2Install Git

Download and install from git-scm.com. Use all default settings — make sure "Add Git to PATH" is checked (it is by default).

Close and reopen PowerShell.

3Install Claude Code

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Close and reopen PowerShell. Then run:

claude

A browser window will open — sign in with your Anthropic account and return to the terminal.

This step is just to authenticate. You can close Claude after signing in — the course will launch it in the right folder later.

On Windows, use Alt+V to paste images into Claude Code — not Ctrl+V.

4Install GitHub CLI

winget install --id GitHub.cli

Close and reopen PowerShell. Then authenticate:

gh auth login

Choose GitHub.com → HTTPS → Login with a web browser. Follow the prompts.

5Install Vercel CLI

npm install -g vercel

Then log in:

vercel login

A browser window will open — sign in with the account you created at vercel.com.

Check that everything works

Run these one at a time. Each should print a version number, not an error.

node --version

git --version

claude --version

gh --version

vercel --version

All five working? You're ready.

Something not working?

"command not found": Close your terminal completely and reopen it. This fixes it 90% of the time.
Claude won't start: Make sure your Claude subscription is active at claude.ai. The free tier doesn't include Claude Code.
"permission denied" installing Vercel CLI: This happens if Node was installed from nodejs.org instead of Homebrew. Run sudo npm install -g vercel to fix it, or reinstall Node via Homebrew: brew install node
Permission errors on Windows: Right-click PowerShell and choose "Run as Administrator", then try the command again.
Still stuck: Run /doctor inside Claude Code. It'll tell you what's wrong.

Start the course

Paste this into your terminal. It creates your project folder, downloads the course, and opens Claude Code.

Claude Code works from the folder you start it in. The command below creates your project folder and launches Claude inside it — so all your work stays in one place.

mkdir claude-code-for-designers && cd claude-code-for-designers && curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhaaland/claude-code-for-designers/main/CLAUDE.md && claude "go"

mkdir claude-code-for-designers; cd claude-code-for-designers; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhaaland/claude-code-for-designers/main/CLAUDE.md" -OutFile "CLAUDE.md"; claude "go"

That's it. Claude takes it from here.