Claude Code for Non-Coders: Getting Started

Can this coding tool really revolutionize how we use AI?

AI always delivers on one thing.

Hype.

Whether it’s Deep Research, agents or MCP — the next thing is always going to be revolutionary.

And one source of FOMO for me is Claude Code¹.

Not the “coding” part of it. (I’m already conversant in “vibe coding” using Cursor._

Many AI “experts” are using Claude Code for non-coding activities.

View the entire tweet

In the above thread you’ll see examples spanning research, legal review, marketing and hiring.

Yet I’m going to guess that less than 5% of you know what CLI means.

I went down a Claude Code rabbit hole to figure out if us non-technical folks should put in the effort of learning this very different approach to AI.

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Why should you care about Claude Code?

You probably shouldn’t.

If you regularly use ChatGPT-5 (and maybe splurged on the $200 version) many of your use cases should be covered.

However in my work with hedge funds and private equity firms they’ve run into a bunch of roadblocks including:

• Getting your internal data into AI

• Getting your outputs out of AI

• Minimizing hallucinations

• Connecting to outside tools

• Creating multi-step workflows

Sure, you can try better prompting and context engineering — but you quickly hit a brick wall.

(And that last one, is super-frustrating.)

In this multi-part series on Claude Code, I want to test that hypothesis that these obstacles can be conquered.

1. Getting started with Claude Code

First, I’ve got some bad news. We’re going to have to use the Terminal.

My fellow Gen X’ers will remember that as the MS-DOS Prompt and for the kids reading this it means you can’t use your mouse.

Thankfully the terminal comes pre-installed on both the Mac and Windows operating systems.

Once loaded, you’ll see this minimalist screen:

Next, you’ll need to download Claude Code onto your local machine. It’s separate from the Claude app.

The full instructions can be found on Anthropic’s website but involve the following command on Mac:

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

And on Windows:

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

This will kick off the download. Once complete, you’ll be asked to log-in to your Claude account (minimum plan of $20/month) by typing Claude in your terminal and following the instructions:

2. Launching your first Claude Code session

Once you’re logged in you’ll create your first project.

In Claude Code terms that effectively means creating a folder (and potentially moving in some files).

For this very simple example we’ll start with just an empty folder.

Create a folder called storytelling using Mac Finder or Windows Explorer.

Next, you’ll change directory to storytelling (using the command cd):

And from there you’ll type claude (step 1) to launch the app:

And you’re now ready to interact with the Claude prompt (Step 2).

3. Writing prompts

Now this prompt acts like a regular chat interface. It’s very similar to just being inside Claude or ChatGPT.

You can say things like:

How would you compare Warren Buffet's and Peter Lynch's investing style?

Which would yield this result:

But why would we go through all this brain damage just to replicate how we use the regular apps.

One clue — you can do much more than just prompt.

4. Creating files using Claude Code

Try this simple example.

After thinking for 45 seconds, you’ll get the following message:

It created the first story as a markdown file. (Claude Code does a lot in markdown, which is basically a .txt file with a few extra bells and whistles.)

Claude Code then asked for my permission to make another story.

(I approved all 4 additional stories using Option 2.)

I know we’re not creating loads of alpha and efficiency, but lets’s look inside my finder:

Are you seeing the possibility?

5. AI can finally manipulate your files

What’s one of the biggest problems with AI? The first and last-mile challenges.

It’s hard to get your data in. (First-mile.)

And it’s hard to get your data out. (Last-mile.)

Hence all of the copy-pasting into your prompts and then back into Microsoft Word.

Can you see how this changes the game?

For starters, I don’t have to copy anything. All my files (presuming I can read markdown) are already on my machine.

Now check this out.

What if I want to reorganize these files. I just prompt Claude Code:

And the result is bonkers:

It created the folders AND moved the files. Here’s my finder:

What does this mean going forward?

It’s still very early days, but I’ve already got a very real-world use case for next week’s example that involves building a sub-agent with the end goal of running multi-step workflows.

So my conclusion on Claude Code?

Not sold yet — but let’s keep digging.

1. Huge shoutout to Daniel Williams from

Claude Code for Non-Coders

for his tireless explanations of all these concepts.