Prosper Donkey.
Learn Claude · 1-Hour Session
Before we meet.
None of this is required — we can handle setup together on the day. But if you arrive with these already in place, we spend the hour building, not clicking through signup flows. Work through what you can; skip what you can't.
Claude is the AI we'll be working with. You need a free account at claude.ai — the free tier is plenty to get started.
- Go to claude.ai and sign up with your email
- Verify your email and log in
- Download the Claude desktop app from claude.ai/download
VS Code is the code editor we'll use as our home base. Free, lightweight, and where Claude Code lives.
- Download from code.visualstudio.com
- Install and open it — no configuration needed yet
Claude Code is Anthropic's CLI tool — it connects Claude directly to your editor and terminal so you can actually build things, not just chat. This is the core of what makes the session valuable.
- Install Node.js (LTS) from nodejs.org
- Then open a terminal and run: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
- In VS Code, open the Extensions panel and search "Claude Code" — install the official Anthropic extension
node -v — if you see a version number, skip the first step.
GitHub is where code lives. Even if you never write code yourself, Git lets Claude Code track changes and save your work properly during the session.
- Create a free account at github.com
- Install Git from git-scm.com/downloads
- Verify: open a terminal and type
git --version
If you want to build and ship something in our hour, an AWS account gets you there. The free tier covers everything we'd do — no charges for lightweight apps and static sites.
- Sign up at aws.amazon.com/free — credit card required but free tier won't charge you
- Install the AWS CLI from aws.amazon.com/cli
- Verify: open a terminal and type
aws --version