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The Builder's Stack

Artifact · last verified August 6, 2026

The Setup Clinic

Get Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor running on your machine. Every step ends with a checkpoint so you always know it worked, and the common stalls have fixes at the bottom.

Before any install: ship something in the browser

If the terminal has ever stopped you, do this first. It takes twenty minutes, installs nothing, and ends with a link you made. Momentum beats tooling.

  1. Go to claude.ai and sign in (a free account works).

    You are done when You see the chat box.

  2. Ask for something small and interactive, in one sentence. For example: “Build me a single-page packing checklist for a weekend trip, with checkboxes I can tick and a progress bar.”

    You are done when A working little app renders next to the chat, and you can click it.

  3. Change it with plain words: “Make the progress bar green and add a reset button.”

    You are done when The change appears. That cycle, describe, look, correct, is the core skill of this whole level.

  4. Publish it from the share menu.

    You are done when You have a link you could text to a friend. You have shipped software today.

Pick your builder and install it

The drills across the level use Claude Code as the canonical walkthrough, and every move has a one-line Codex or Cursor equivalent, so any of the three carries you through the course.

Anthropic's native app. Its Code tab runs the full Claude Code with access to your files, in a window instead of a terminal.

You need
A Claude account (a paid plan, or API billing). No terminal or Node.js install needed.
Pick this when
Pick this one. It is the easiest install by far, and its Code tab runs the full Claude Code, the tool the drills in this level use as the canonical walkthrough, so everything in the course applies.

  1. Download the app from claude.com/download and install it like any other app.

    macOS (one build covers Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows (x64 or ARM), or the Linux beta for Ubuntu and Debian. Open the downloaded file and follow the prompts.

    You are done when Claude opens and lets you sign in with your Claude account.

  2. Open the Code tab and point it at a folder to build in.

    The app has separate tabs: Chat is plain conversation with no file access, Cowork runs longer tasks on its own in an isolated environment, and Code is the one that builds with access to your files. Make an empty folder called my-builds and open it there.

    You are done when The Code workspace opens on your folder, with a file area, an editor, and a place to type.

  3. Give it a tiny first task to see the rhythm.

    Try: “Create a file called hello.html that shows a centered greeting, then show me a preview.”

    You are done when It asks permission before editing (Manual mode, which the app used to call Ask, is the default), the file appears, you accept the change, and the preview shows your greeting.

The terminal, demystified

The terminal is a text box that runs commands in a folder. On a Mac, press Cmd+Space, type “Terminal”, press return. On Windows, open the Start menu and type “PowerShell”. You will type a handful of things, ever, and you can always ask the tool itself what a command does before running it.

cd my-buildsgo into a folder (cd is “change directory”)
lslist what is in the current folder (dir on Windows)
pwdshow which folder you are standing in
npm run devstart a project's local dev server, usually at localhost:3000
claudestart Claude Code in the current folder (codex starts Codex)

Where people stall, and the way out

“command not found” right after a successful install

Close the terminal window and open a fresh one; the new command is registered when a window starts. If it persists, paste the exact error into any AI chat and say which tool and operating system; fixing this is a two-minute, well-trodden path.

npm is not recognized

Node.js is missing. Install the LTS version from nodejs.org, open a fresh terminal, and run the command again.

The browser sign-in finishes but the terminal never notices

Go back to the same terminal window and give it a few seconds. If it is still waiting, press Ctrl+C and run the tool again; the second attempt almost always lands. Corporate browsers with strict SSO sometimes eat the redirect, so set your personal browser as default for the sign-in.

It keeps asking permission for every little thing

That is the tool being trustworthy, not broken. Approve actions one by one until you trust the folder; every tool has a setting to widen permissions later, and the chapter on guardrails explains when you should.

A locked-down work laptop will not let you install anything

Use the browser path above (no install at all), or Cursor, which installs like a normal app. For terminal tools, ask IT about their developer-tools policy before fighting it.

You are lost about which folder you are in

Type pwd (print working directory) and the terminal tells you. Keep all builds inside one my-builds folder and the question mostly disappears.

Tools verified. Now what?

Head back to the course. If you are new, start with decoding the technical questions that stop you; if you are here mid-course, the chapter on wiring the model into your build is where your new tools earn their keep. Every chapter's drill also has a no-setup path, so nothing in the course ever waits on this page.