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Claude Code Basics Lesson 1 of 46

The Claude Ecosystem and Where Claude Code Fits

In short
  • Claude isn't one single app: Claude Chat, Claude Cowork and Claude Code are different tools, with different capabilities.
  • Claude Code is the most powerful of the three: it lets you do far more.
  • It was built for writing code, but it's also used by plenty of people who don't program.
  • If you're starting from zero, the advice is to start with the Claude Chat course and come back here after.

Claude isn't just one thing

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, doesn't have just one product. The tools you find under the Claude name aren't all the same: what you can do with them changes. That's the first thing to get clear on.

  • Claude Chat — the chat: you write, attach documents, ask, get an answer. It's the tool we dedicated a separate course to.

  • Claude Cowork — works on your files with an agentic approach: it gets a task done, instead of just answering you.

  • Claude Code — the most powerful of the three, and what this course is about: it lets you do a huge amount more.

Starting from zero? Do Claude Chat first

Claude Code is very different from Chat and from Cowork. If this is your first time approaching these tools, the advice is to look at the Claude Chat course first: it covers the basics, and with those in hand this course is easier to follow.

If you already use Claude Chat, you can stay right here: from this point on we're only talking about Claude Code.

Built for code, used by non-coders too

Claude Code was built as a tool for developing code, and the name says as much. But over the past year plenty of non-technical people, who can't write a line of code, have been doing amazing things with this tool:

  • automating processes;

  • building small applications for themselves;

  • experimenting.

Which is why knowing this tool matters for everyone, not just people who code.

Where we go from here

In this course we cover everything there is to know about Claude Code. This is a gentle, basic lesson, as usual.

In the next one we get concrete: what Claude Code actually is, what it means that it "works in your place," and why it isn't just a chat with a different name.

Did you get it?

Two minutes, no grade. Trying to answer — even getting it wrong — cements the concepts far more than rereading. Not in the mood? Skip it: the lesson still counts as complete.

Which of the three Claude tools is the most powerful?

Do you need to know how to code to use Claude Code?

Course Claude Code Basics

  1. Chapter 1 Introduction

    1. 1 The Claude Ecosystem and Where Claude Code Fits
    2. 2 What Claude Code Is: The Collaborator Who Walks Into Your Studio
    3. 3 How an Agent Works: The Loop

  2. Chapter 2 What's Underneath

    1. 4 Claude Code in Action: The Loop, for Real
    2. 5 The Model Has No Memory: It Starts Over Every Time
    3. 6 The Harness: The Engine and the Gear Around It
    4. 7 The Map: Four Buckets

  3. Chapter 3 You Choose the Engine

    1. 8 There's No Single Claude: The Model Lineup
    2. 9 Which Model for Which Job
    3. 10 Effort: How Hard It Should Think
    4. 11 Model or Effort? The Question That Trips Everyone Up
    5. 12 The Bill: Why Saving Money Can Cost You More

  4. Chapter 4 First Time at the Controls

    1. 13 Where to Run It: Four Doors In
    2. 14 What You Need Before You Start
    3. 15 Installing Claude Code
    4. 16 The Folder: Where You Open It Decides What It Works On
    5. 17 Choosing the Engine, in Practice
    6. 18 Your First Task: Small, Yours, and It Works

  5. Chapter 5 What You Let It Touch

    1. 19 Why It Asks for Permission
    2. 20 The Rules: Always Yes, Ask Me, Never
    3. 21 The Modes: How Much Leash You Give It
    4. 22 Plan Mode: Get the Plan Before the Work
    5. 23 Verification in the Loop: Give It a Yardstick
    6. 24 Example: Putting the Bucket Together

  6. Chapter 6 What It Knows About You

    1. 25 CLAUDE.md: The Notes It Reads the Moment It Walks In
    2. 26 How to Write a CLAUDE.md That Actually Works
    3. 27 The Context Window: How Much It Can Hold at Once
    4. 28 Cleaning Up: Compact and Clear
    5. 29 Automatic Memory
    6. 30 Example: From Repeating Yourself to Never Again

  7. Chapter 7 Skills

    1. 31 What a Skill Is: A Procedure Written Once
    2. 32 Creating Your First Skill
    3. 33 The Description Decides Whether It Gets Used
    4. 34 Example: A Skill That Saves You the Week

  8. Chapter 8 How Many You Put to Work

    1. 35 The Subagent: A Helper With Its Own Desk
    2. 36 When a Helper Is Worth It (and What It Costs)
    3. 37 Teams: When Agents Talk to Each Other
    4. 38 Example: Searching Without Cluttering the Desk

  9. Chapter 9 What It's Connected To

    1. 39 MCP: The Standard Plug Into Your Tools
    2. 40 Plugins: Packaging Up and Borrowing
    3. 41 Example: When You Stop Copying and Pasting

  10. Chapter 10 Automating the Setup

    1. 42 Hooks: The Thing That Always Happens
    2. 43 Where It Fires and What It Can Do
    3. 44 When You Actually Need One (and When It's Too Much)

  11. Chapter 11 Wrap-Up

    1. 45 The Project: Your Expense Tracker
    2. 46 Wrap-Up: What You're Taking Home
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