You built a page in the app without this. The terminal is the second door: the same Claude Code, portable to any computer, and honestly just a text box where you type commands. You need exactly three moves:
- Open it. Mac: press Cmd+Space, type Terminal, Enter. Windows: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, Enter.
- Go to a folder: type cd plus the folder path, for example cd Desktop/my-first-app
- Run a program: type its name and press Enter. That is it. That is the whole prerequisite.
Split your screen: this lesson on one half, the terminal on the other, and run each move as you meet it. Open the terminal. Create a folder called my-first-app on your Desktop (the normal way, in Finder or Explorer). Then in the terminal type: cd Desktop/my-first-app and press Enter. No error message means it worked.
"No such file or directory" on Windows usually means your Desktop lives inside OneDrive. Try cd OneDrive/Desktop/my-first-app instead. And the universal trick on any system: type cd plus a space, then drag the folder from Finder or Explorer straight onto the terminal window and press Enter. The path types itself.
Done when: you opened a terminal and moved into a folder without your pulse changing.