Installation

Get set up before the workshop

Choose Your Interface

Claude Code now offers four ways to interact with the same underlying tool:

  • Terminal — a command-line prompt in Terminal (Mac/Linux) or PowerShell (Windows). This is what we will use in the workshop.
  • Desktop app — a standalone Mac/Windows app with no terminal required.
  • VS Code extension — a chat panel inside Visual Studio Code, alongside your files.
  • JetBrains plugin — the same idea for IntelliJ, PyCharm, RubyMine, and other JetBrains IDEs.

All four share the same skills, slash commands, and file-access behaviour. The workshop instructions assume the terminal, but if you prefer one of the other interfaces you can follow along — the prompts and skills work identically. We are happy to help you get any of them running at the start of the session.

If you would rather use OpenAI’s coding agent instead, see Option B: Codex below.

Windows users

On Windows, the smoothest path for a first-time terminal user is the Desktop app or the VS Code extension — both avoid the differences between PowerShell, CMD, and Git Bash. If you do want the terminal, Claude Code now requires Git for Windows; install it first.

For longer-term use beyond this workshop, the best terminal experience on Windows is through Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which gives you a full Linux terminal inside Windows. Installing WSL is too large a step for a workshop, but it is worth doing on your own time if you plan to use Claude Code regularly.

Reading the code blocks in this workshop

There are two kinds of code blocks across this site:

  • Terminal commands are tagged bash (or powershell) and meant to be typed into your system terminal. You will see these on this installation page.
  • Claude Code prompts are plain code blocks (no language tag). Once Claude Code is running you can copy-paste them straight into the > prompt — there is no > to type or strip out, just the words you would say to Claude.

Claude Code is not running yet, so everything on this installation page is a terminal command. Once you finish this page, you will only run a handful of terminal commands ever again. Almost everything from the first session onward happens inside Claude Code.

Option A: Install Claude Code

Step 1: Subscribe to Claude Pro

Claude Code requires a paid Claude account. The simplest option for the workshop is Claude Pro (about CAD $27/month), which includes Claude Code access at no extra cost.

  1. Go to claude.ai and create an account
  2. Click Upgrade to Pro and add a payment method
  3. That’s it — there is no API key to copy. You will log in with your Claude account the first time you launch Claude Code.
About cost and usage limits

Claude Pro is a flat monthly subscription, but the Claude Code usage limits on the Pro tier are modest — heavy use during the workshop may bump you into a cool-down period before your quota resets. If you expect to use Claude Code regularly after the workshop, the Max plan offers significantly higher limits. If you already have a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan you are set. The free Claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code. (Pay-per-use API billing through the Anthropic Console is also supported but is not the recommended path for this workshop.)

Step 2: Install Claude Code

Follow the official Claude Code Quickstart, which has up-to-date install instructions for all four interfaces (Terminal, Desktop, VS Code, JetBrains) on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

For the workshop we will use the terminal interface. The native installer is a single command and no longer requires Node.js:

  • macOS / Linux / WSL: curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
  • Windows PowerShell: irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
  • Homebrew (Mac): brew install --cask claude-code
  • WinGet (Windows): winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode

After installing, verify with:

claude --version

Step 3: First Launch

claude

The first time you launch Claude Code it will open a browser window so you can log in with your Claude account (the same email and password you used at claude.ai). Once you are logged in, you should see the Claude Code prompt (a > waiting for input). Type /exit to close for now.

Troubleshooting

  • “command not found” after install — Close and reopen your terminal so it picks up the new claude binary on your PATH.
  • Permission errors on Mac/Linux — The native installer writes to ~/.local/bin/claude and does not need sudo. If you hit a permission error, see the Claude Code troubleshooting guide.
  • Windows: && is not a valid statement separator — You are in PowerShell, not CMD. Use the PowerShell command above (irm ... | iex).

Checklist

Create a Workshop Folder

This section applies to everyone — Claude Code and Codex users alike. It’s the last thing you need to do in your system terminal before the workshop. Everything else — cloning the skills repository, setting up Python, downloading data — will happen inside Claude Code itself in the first session.

Create an empty folder called claude_workshop and move into it:

mkdir claude_workshop
cd claude_workshop

That’s the workshop folder. You will launch Claude Code from here, and Claude will fill it in (lincs_skills/, .venv/, data/) once you start your first session.

Don’t worry about Python yet

You do not need to check whether Python is installed, install missing packages, or create a virtual environment yourself. The very first thing you will do in the first session is ask Claude Code to check what is on your machine and set up whatever is missing. If Python itself is not installed, Claude will tell you exactly what to do.

Workshop Folder Checklist

Option B: Codex (OpenAI Alternative)

Codex CLI is OpenAI’s coding agent. Like Claude Code, it runs in the terminal and reads/writes files on your machine. There is also a browser-based interface at chatgpt.com/codex where tasks run in a cloud sandbox. Codex requires a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise subscription (or, with extra setup, an OpenAI API key).

Step 1: Ensure You Have ChatGPT Access

If you already have a paid ChatGPT plan you are set. If not, sign up at chatgpt.com.

Step 2: Install Codex CLI

The easiest install paths are:

  • macOS (Homebrew): brew install --cask codex
  • Any platform with Node.js 18+: npm install -g @openai/codex
  • Direct binary: download from the latest GitHub release
Codex still needs Node.js (if you go the npm route)

Unlike Claude Code, the npm install of Codex requires Node.js 18+. If you do not already have Node.js installed and you are not on macOS, the binary download is the simplest option.

Once installed, create your workshop folder following the shared section above. Then launch Codex from inside it:

cd claude_workshop
codex

The first time you run it, choose Sign in with ChatGPT and complete the browser login. From there, ask Codex to set up Python, clone the LINCS skills repository, and download the workshop data, just as you would with Claude Code in the first session.

If you prefer the browser interface instead, download the LINCS skills repository as a ZIP from github.com/jburnford/lincs_skills (green Code button > Download ZIP) and upload files to each task at chatgpt.com/codex.

Differences to Be Aware Of

  • Slash commands (/cidoc-crm, /lincs-profile) are a Claude Code feature. In Codex, you can ask it to read the skill file directly: “Read lincs_skills/skills/cidoc-crm.md and use it as reference material.”
  • The core workflow — giving natural language instructions to work with data — is the same across both tools.

Checklist