Week 0 lesson notes: set-up, safety and the first win

The idea

Claude Code is an AI agent from Anthropic that runs on your own computer. It reads your folders, writes and changes files, and follows rules you have written. What it produces is only as good as what sits in the folder when you start it, which is why this course is about writing your practice down. Every task is done twice: first on the fictional firm, Ladipo Nwosu & Co, in Demo-Practice, then on your own firm in Practice.

Before you install

The plan, the training setting and Git for Windows are pre-work. Before installing, check that your paid plan is active (you can sign in at https://claude.ai and see it) and that the training setting is recorded with a date, switched off on Pro or Max or noted as not applicable on a Team seat. If either is missing, finish the pre-work first.

Commands from this week

All commands are typed in Windows PowerShell. The line starts with PS C:\. If it starts with C:\ and no PS, you are in Command Prompt; close it and open PowerShell.

Type only what is inside the grey box: the letters, spaces and symbols. Never type the box itself, and never the quotation marks a sentence puts round a command; if you type 'cd Documents' with the marks, PowerShell simply repeats the words back to you and does nothing. The only quotation marks you type this week are the ones round a workspace path after cd, as the table shows.

Where you can, copy a command from these notes and paste it into PowerShell with a right-click (or Ctrl and V), instead of typing it, then compare it with the notes before you press Enter. Do not copy commands from WhatsApp: it treats asterisks, underscores and tildes as formatting and can quietly remove them, so a command that arrives there may not be the command that was sent. Use the one in these notes.

In the install command the character between ps1 and iex is a vertical bar, typed with Shift and the backslash key. The installer shows no progress while it downloads; wait for the PS prompt to come back, then close PowerShell and open a new window before claude --version.

Claude Code installs for one Windows account at a time. Install while signed in to the Windows account you will use for this course, and check the name after C:\Users\ on your prompt. If you or a colleague later sign in to the same laptop as a different Windows user, that account needs its own install, and if claude is not recognised there, the fix in Troubleshooting below.

Your workspace folders

Turn on file name extensions and hidden items: File Explorer, View, Show, File name extensions, and Hidden items. Then make these folders in Documents:

Start Claude Code only in a workspace folder. Never start it, or answer yes to the trust question, in Documents, Desktop or Downloads: Claude reads the files in a trusted working folder without asking. Save one cd line for each workspace and use it every time.

First run

The first claude asks for a colour theme (arrow keys, then Enter; any is fine) and a sign-in method. Choose the Claude account with a subscription, never the Anthropic Console account, which bills by use and is not your plan. On a Team seat, sign in with the work email your invitation went to. Then answer the trust question yes only if the path shown ends in your workspace folder.

The Claude Code screen and its permission prompts

The welcome panel near the top names the folder Claude is working in; check it every time. You type in the box at the bottom. Under it, the status line should read manual mode on. While Claude works, a short line says what it is doing; press Escape to stop it.

Reading files in a trusted folder happens without a prompt. Before Claude creates or edits a file, or runs a command, it stops and shows what it wants to do, with numbered choices: yes for this once; a second yes, which for file edits allows them for the rest of the session and for a command or connected tool means do not ask again, remembered in .claude\settings.local.json inside the workspace; or no, which lets you tell it what to do instead. Read the prompt, check the file name and folder, approve writing only inside your workspace, and never approve something you do not understand: choose no and type Explain in plain English what that would do. While you are learning, choose yes for this once.

OneDrive habits

A OneDrive-synced Documents folder is fine for the workspaces, with four habits. Right-click each workspace and choose Always keep on this device, so Claude can see every file. Never run two Claude sessions on the same client folder at once; if a copy with a computer's name appears, compare, keep one and delete the other. In a shared workspace never choose "do not ask again", because that approval syncs to colleagues. Code projects with a hidden .git folder, and .env files, never go in a synced folder; keep them in a folder such as C:\dev.

Above all, never type a client's tax ID, BVN, NIN, bank account number, personal phone number or email address, password or API key into any file in a workspace. A synced folder keeps old versions of deleted files for weeks.

The safety switches

CLAUDE.md is guidance: Claude reads it and usually obeys. The starter kit's .claude\settings.json and .claude\hooks\block-id-numbers.ps1 are enforcement: Claude Code applies them whatever Claude decides. They stop edits in any 01-source-documents folder, reading .env secret files, any connector tool that sends, replies, forwards, shares, trashes, deletes, removes, moves or uploads, and any write that contains something shaped like a NIN, BVN, tax ID, phone number or account number. They also start every session in manual mode and take auto mode and bypass mode out of the Shift+Tab cycle.

Check them in each workspace with /permissions (deny rules, from project settings), /hooks (one PreToolUse hook running block-id-numbers) and /status (the setting sources include project settings). Stay in manual mode for client work. Shift+Tab moves to accept edits, where Claude changes files without asking, and to plan mode, where it can only read and propose; press it until manual mode on shows again. Never edit or delete the .claude settings or hook. The hook is proved in week 2 and the connector rules in week 6.

The desktop app

Anthropic's desktop app for Windows has a Code tab that runs Claude Code in a window, reading the same CLAUDE.md, skills and settings file. The course teaches the terminal; the app is a sound choice for colleagues who will only use the workspace, opened on the same workspace folder and kept in manual mode. It remembers its own mode for each folder, so check the mode each time you open it.

Your first win: the finished demo workspace

Start Claude in Demo-Finished (check the trust question and the welcome panel name it), and ask:

Sweetcrest still owes us the 2024 fee. Draft the reminder letter to the managing director and save it as fee-reminder.md in the 2024 accounts engagement's correspondence folder.

Approve the new file once, after checking it is in ladipo-nwosu-and-co\clients\sweetcrest-provisions-limited\engagements\2024-accounts\03-correspondence\, and approve the dated log line if Claude asks. The letter should open with ₦850,000, what it was for and the due date of 30 June 2026, thank Mr Adekunle for saying payment is coming, ask for payment within two weeks with the reason, and be signed Tolulope Ladipo, FCA / Principal / for: Ladipo Nwosu & Co.

To see cause and effect, open voice.md in Notepad (right-click, Open with, Notepad), change "We address the managing director by name." to "We address the managing director by his first name.", save, type /clear in Claude, and ask for the letter again as fee-reminder-2.md. The salutation changes to "Dear Bayo,". Change the sentence back and save.

Checking your week

Every week ends with the week-check skill that came in the starter kit. In Practice, press Shift+Tab until the status line reads plan mode on, type /week-check 0 and press Enter. It reports each item the week asked for as present, missing or weak, with the file it looked at, and changes nothing. Fix each missing row, then run it again. Do the same in Demo-Practice. Week 1 explains plan mode properly; for now it only means Claude can read but not change anything.

Troubleshooting

"claude is not recognised" after installing. The installer may also have said that .local\bin "is not in your PATH": the program is there, Windows just cannot find it. Copy these two lines from here and paste them into PowerShell, pressing Enter after each, then close PowerShell, open a new window and try claude --version again. If it still fails, run claude doctor and bring what it says.

$currentPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', 'User')
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', "$currentPath;$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin", 'User')

"claude is not recognised" on a laptop where it worked before. Look at the name after C:\Users\ on your prompt. If it is a different Windows account from the one you installed in, that account has no Claude Code: install it there too, with the same command.

PowerShell repeats your command back to you and nothing happens. You typed quotation marks round the whole command. Type it again with only the words and symbols inside the grey box.

"The token '&&' is not a valid statement separator". You used a Command Prompt install command in PowerShell. Use the PowerShell command in the table above.

"Cannot find path" when you type cd, or dir in Documents shows nothing or folders that are not yours. OneDrive manages your Documents folder, so it is somewhere else, often C:\Users\<you>\OneDrive\Documents. Open the folder in File Explorer, copy the path from the address bar, and paste it between quotation marks after cd.

You chose the Console account at sign-in. Type /login in Claude Code and sign in again with the subscription account.

The browser does not open for sign-in. Press c in the PowerShell window to copy the sign-in link, and paste it into your browser.

Red text saying a word "is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet" after you typed a sentence. You typed your request into PowerShell, not Claude. Type claude first, then ask.

Claude answers your cd or claude line in English. You are already inside Claude Code. Type /exit to get the PS prompt back, then type the line there.

"Claude Code requires either Git for Windows or PowerShell". Install Git for Windows from https://git-scm.com/downloads/win (see your pre-work).

Claude describes the wrong folder, or /permissions shows no deny rules, or /hooks shows no hook. Claude was started outside the workspace, or the .claude folder did not copy (turn on Hidden items and look). /exit, fix the saved cd line or copy the folder again, and start again.

A starter-kit folder inside your workspace. You copied one level too deep. Move the contents of the inner folder up and delete the empty folder.

The status line says something other than manual mode on. Shift+Tab was pressed, or the settings did not load. Press Shift+Tab until it shows manual mode on; if it never does, check /status.

The daily loop

Open PowerShell, paste the saved cd "<workspace path>" line, claude, check the folder name and manual mode on, work, /exit.

Low data and power cuts

Every lesson video has a low-bitrate download and an audio-only version, and these notes download and carry everything the video says; every figure is written here, never only spoken. Download the week early on your best connection and keep live data for the live session, which is recorded and posted within a day.

The power-cut rule: before you stop, or the moment the power looks shaky, write a dated Next: line at the bottom of this week's worksheet saying what you were about to do. Engagement logs start in week 2. When you return, read the line, cd into the workspace, start claude and carry on from it, not from memory. If the power went during the install, run the install command again; it is safe to repeat. If it went while Claude was writing a file, open the file and check it before you carry on.

Getting help

Fill in _admin\help-request.md in your workspace, or type /stuck in Claude Code and it writes the request for you, then post it in the cohort group. Replies come within one working day.

Other professions

Nothing in this week changes for a law firm or a consultancy: the install, the two workspaces and the safety switches are the same. Only the demo firm differs; a law pack's finished workspace would produce, say, a fee reminder from a chambers, traced to the same kinds of file.

What you submit

Before the live session: a screenshot of the welcome panel in Practice showing its folder and manual mode on, the output of /permissions and /hooks from there, and fee-reminder.md from Demo-Finished.

Recap

You opened PowerShell and learned to recognise it by the PS at the start of the prompt, moved between folders with cd and looked inside them with dir, installed Claude Code and proved it with claude --version in a new window. You made two workspaces from the starter kit, Practice for your own firm and Demo-Practice for practising on the demo firm, and held a first conversation without ever starting Claude in Documents. You checked the safety switches that Claude Code enforces whatever Claude decides, and learned to keep manual mode on. You know the OneDrive habits and the rule that never bends: no ID numbers, account numbers, passwords or keys in any file. When Claude answers from the wrong place, you fix the line you start from, not the answer in the chat. And you saw the whole course in one letter: from a finished workspace, Claude wrote Sweetcrest's fee reminder in the firm's voice, you traced every line of it to a file, and one changed sentence changed the letter.