Setup checklist

What you're setting up

Two accounts, three installs and one folder. Do them once, before day one, and you won't think about setup again: every topic and every class session after this runs on the same laptop. The steps on the right are the checklist. The notes below say what each piece is for, and two of them have a short video walkthrough.

You won't need the terminal for any of it. Installs are ordinary downloads, and anything that needs a command, Claude runs for you.

1. GitHub

GitHub is where code lives online. Every project is a repository (a repo): a folder in the cloud that keeps every version of every file. In the bootcamp it matters for two reasons. It's how what you build leaves your laptop, because you push a project to GitHub and deploy it from there. And it's your backup: you can always go back to an earlier version.

The account takes a couple of minutes. Sign up for free, verify your email, and keep your username somewhere handy.

2. Your Claude plan

Claude Code runs on a Claude Pro or Max plan, and the bootcamp needs one. Sign in to Claude Code later with the same account. Compare the plans.

3. VS Code

VS Code is the editor you'll work in every day. You'll see your project's files on the left and talk to Claude in a panel on the right. Download it, install it like any other app, and open it once.

Another walkthrough, for Windows and Mac: Install VS Code on YouTube.

4. Git

Git keeps track of every change to a project: what changed, when, and why. Think of it as an undo button for the whole project, with a log of everything that happened. Git lives on your laptop. GitHub is where Git projects are kept online. Git is the tool, GitHub is the home.

In the bootcamp, Git is how Claude Code's work gets saved and sent to GitHub. Claude runs it for you when you ask ("save this to GitHub"), so you only need it installed.

• Windows: download Git for Windows and keep the default options. Claude Code on Windows needs it, so this one isn't optional.
• Mac: you may already have it. If not, macOS offers to install it the first time VS Code needs it: click Install.
• Linux: install Git from your system's software installer. git-scm.com lists the package for each system.

Close and reopen VS Code after installing, so it can find Git.

5. Claude Code in VS Code

Claude Code is Claude with tools. It doesn't only answer questions: it reads the files in your project, writes code across several files, runs things and fixes what breaks, and it asks you before it runs anything. You tell it what you want in plain words. If you can explain a problem to a colleague, you can work with it.

It runs in a terminal, in a desktop app, on the web, and inside editors. In this course we use the VS Code extension, so you see every change Claude makes right in your project.

In VS Code, open Extensions (the four squares on the left), search for Claude Code, install it and sign in with your Claude account. Then click the Claude icon to open the panel.

6. A folder for the bootcamp

Claude Code works inside whichever folder you have open. Make one for the bootcamp: choose File › Open Folder, create a folder called FDE Bootcamp (in Documents is fine) and open it. Topic 0.2 puts the course in here.

7. Tell Git who you are

Every change Git saves carries a name and an email, so your work is credited to you. Use the email you signed up to GitHub with, so GitHub links your work to your account. You set this once for the whole laptop: send the message in the last step to Claude, with your own details, and click Allow when Claude asks to run Git.

The bootcamp adds a few more tools in class. You don't need them yet.

If something goes wrong