What is a terminal?

The terminal is a text-based window into your computer. Instead of clicking buttons in a graphical user interface (GUI), you type commands and press Enter. Claude Code runs entirely inside the terminal.

Why this matters

Claude Code is not just a chat window like ChatGPT or Claude.ai in your browser. It is an AI agent that actually does the work—it reads your local files, writes new code, runs commands, installs packages, and pushes commits to GitHub. The terminal is the native environment where all of this developer-level work happens.

• No coding experience required: You do not need to memorize terminal commands. Claude Code understands plain English instructions.
• Typing is faster: You just need to type what you want in plain English, and Claude handles running the complex CLI commands under the hood.
• Direct access: By running inside your terminal, Claude Code can interact directly with your codebase and system tools safely.

What you'll see in the terminal

When you open a terminal, you will see a blank window with a cursor and a text prompt that looks something like this:

terminal
Last login: Mon Apr 20 14:32 on ttys001
alex@macbook ~ $

Every command you type appears after that prompt. Pressing Enter runs the command.

Exercises

1. Open your computer's default terminal application (Terminal on macOS, or Command Prompt on Windows).
2. Type echo "Hello Claude Code" and press Enter. Notice how the terminal outputs your text back on the next line.
3. Observe your command prompt. Can you identify your user name and directory path from the prompt prefix?