Opening and navigating the terminal

Opening the terminal

Time to open the door.

You learned in the previous page that the terminal is an app on your computer where Claude Code runs. Now you'll open it, look around, and learn three things. After this page, you'll know enough terminal for the entire course.

On a Mac

Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight search. Type Terminal and press Return.

A window appears with a dark or light background and a line of text that looks something like this:

sarah@macbook ~ %

That's the prompt you saw in the previous page. It's telling you who you are (sarah), what computer you're on (macbook), and where you are (~, which means your home folder).

Tip: After Terminal opens, right-click its icon in the Dock and choose Options > Keep in Dock. That way it's always one click away next time.

On Windows

Press the Windows key on your keyboard. Type PowerShell and click Windows PowerShell.

On Windows 11, you can also type Terminal — it opens a newer app called Windows Terminal, which runs PowerShell inside it. Either option works.

You'll see something like this:

PS C:\Users\Sarah>

The PS means PowerShell. C:\Users\Sarah is your home folder. The > is where you type.

On Linux

Press Ctrl + Alt + T. On most Linux systems, this opens the terminal immediately.

You'll see a prompt like:

sarah@ubuntu-desktop:~$

Same idea — username, computer name, current folder (~), and a prompt character ($) waiting for you to type.

No matter which system you're on, you're now looking at the same thing: a text window with a blinking cursor, ready for you to type.

Three things to learn. That's it.

Where am I?

The first question in any unfamiliar place: where am I right now?

The terminal has a command for this. On Mac or Linux, type pwd and press Enter.

pwd

It shows the full location of the folder you're in:

/Users/sarah

That's your home folder, written as a path — the address of a folder on your computer. Think of it like a street address. /Users/sarah means: start at the root of the computer, go into the Users folder, then into sarah.

On Windows PowerShell, pwd works too:

PS C:\Users\Sarah> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\Sarah

Windows uses backslashes (\) instead of forward slashes (/), but the idea is identical. It's a folder address.

Plain language: When you see people say "working directory," they mean the folder the terminal is currently looking at. That's all. pwd stands for "print working directory" — or in plain terms, "show me which folder I'm in."

You probably won't type pwd very often. But when you feel lost, it answers the question immediately.

What's here?

Now that you know where you are, what's actually in this folder?

On Mac or Linux, type ls and press Enter.

ls

You'll see a list of what's in the current folder:

Desktop    Documents    Downloads    Music    Pictures

Look familiar? These are the same folders you see when you open Finder or File Explorer. The terminal is showing you the same thing, from a different angle.

On Windows PowerShell, both ls and dir work. They show the same list. Use whichever feels more natural.

PS C:\Users\Sarah> ls

    Directory: C:\Users\Sarah

Mode          LastWriteTime     Length Name
----          -------------     ------ ----
d----   2/07/2026  10:30 AM            Desktop
d----   2/07/2026  10:30 AM            Documents
d----   2/07/2026  10:30 AM            Downloads

PowerShell shows a bit more detail (dates, sizes) but the core information is the same: here are the folders and files in this location.

How do I move around?

You know where you are and what's here. Now you need to go somewhere else.

The command is cd, which stands for "change directory" — or in plain terms, "go to a different folder." This one works the same on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Say you want to go into your Documents folder. Type:

cd Documents

Press Enter. The prompt changes to show your new location:

Mac:

sarah@macbook Documents %

Windows:

PS C:\Users\Sarah\Documents>

You've moved. Now if you type ls (or dir on Windows), you'll see what's inside Documents instead of your home folder.

Going back up

To go up one level — back to the folder that contains the one you're in — type:

cd ..

The two dots (..) always mean "the folder above this one." If you're in Documents and type cd .., you're back in your home folder.

Going home

If you get lost and want to return to your home folder, type:

cd ~

The tilde (~) is shorthand for your home folder. On Mac and Linux, typing cd by itself also takes you home.

That's the entire navigation toolkit: pwd to check where you are, ls to see what's here, cd to move somewhere else. Three commands.

Shortcuts for long paths

There's a trick that saves real time here.

Say you have a folder buried deep on your computer — something like /Users/sarah/Projects/Q1-2026/Client Reports/March. Typing that full path is tedious and error-prone. One wrong letter and it won't work.

Drag and drop (Mac)

Type cd (with a space after it) in Terminal, then drag the folder from Finder and drop it into the Terminal window.

The full path appears automatically:

cd /Users/sarah/Projects/Q1-2026/Client\ Reports/March

Press Enter and you're there.

(Notice the backslash before the space in Client\ Reports? That tells the terminal the space is part of the folder name. You don't need to remember this — the drag-and-drop method handles it for you.)

This works with any folder. Drag it from Finder, drop it into Terminal, and the path fills in for you.

Right-click to open (Windows)

On Windows 11, right-click any folder in File Explorer and choose Open in Terminal. A terminal window opens already inside that folder — no cd needed at all.

Putting it together

Let's put this into practice with a real scenario.

Say you have a project folder on your Desktop called "Sales Data" and you want to get Claude Code working with those files. You open the terminal and navigate to that folder:

Mac:

cd ~/Desktop/Sales\ Data

Windows:

cd "~\Desktop\Sales Data"

You check that you're in the right place:

ls

january-report.csv    february-report.csv    summary.xlsx

Those are your files. You're in the right folder. You're ready to start Claude Code (which you'll do on a later page).

That whole process took about 10 seconds. Two commands. From here, everything becomes a conversation in plain English.

What you don't need to memorize

You might be thinking: aren't there hundreds of terminal commands?

Yes. You need three.

Everything else — file manipulation, data analysis, building tools, automation — Claude Code handles for you. You describe what you want in plain English. Claude Code figures out the commands.

If you forget one of these three, you can always ask Claude Code itself: "What folder am I in?" or "Show me the files here." It knows the answer.

The terminal was the biggest hurdle. You've cleared it. Next up: installing Claude Code and getting it running.