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Claude Code gives you superpowers, to be the person that remembers everything and generates anything.
A practical guide to getting real work done with Claude Code, written for people who don't think of themselves as technical.
Claude Code is an AI assistant that runs on your own computer. It reads and writes real files, remembers what matters to you, and connects to the tools you already use like Gmail, Slack, and Google Drive. Give it a folder of your real context and it can draft your emails, prep your meetings, keep your todo lists, build you a website, and automate the boring parts of your week.
Read this guide as a website at craastad.github.io/claude-code-starter, or browse the files right here on GitHub.
Not set up yet? Jump to First time here. Once you are, a working session is two commands in your terminal:
cd ~/context/work # 1. go to the context folder for this part of your life
claude # 2. start Claude Code inside it
Then just talk to it, in plain language. A few commands worth knowing inside a session:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
claude --resume |
Reopen a previous conversation instead of starting fresh |
/mcp |
See and sign in to your connected tools |
/model |
Switch model. Fable for hard thinking, Sonnet for routine work |
/clear |
Wipe the conversation and start clean in the same window |
/exit |
Leave Claude Code |
Three habits that keep you fast:
- One terminal window per task. When a task is finished, close the window. Open a fresh one for the next thing.
- Always
cdinto your context folder before runningclaude. The folder you start in decides what Claude knows and which tools it can use. - Ask Claude to save anything worth keeping into a file. Files are memory. Chat history is not.
- Skim Background so the pieces make sense. 15 minutes.
- Do Setup step by step. Budget a relaxed afternoon.
- Read How to work and do one real task from your actual life.
- When it clicks, read What's next.
You don't need to be a programmer. If you can install an app and copy-paste, you can do everything here. And the best part is that Claude helps you through its own setup. When anything goes wrong, paste the error into Claude and ask.
| Chapter | What's inside |
|---|---|
| 1. Background | Claude vs Claude Code, what it can do, what a context repo is and why it changes everything, GitHub in plain language, and MCPs (the connectors that let Claude act in your tools) |
| 2. Setup | Install the five tools (iTerm2, Claude, Claude Code, Obsidian, Git + GitHub), create your first context repo, and connect Gmail, Slack, and Google Drive |
| 3. How to work | Terminal basics, sessions, choosing models, memory, and turning your recurring processes into playbooks Claude can run |
| 4. What's next | Scheduled jobs that run without you, and building websites, apps, and your own tools |
| Tips & tricks | A growing collection of patterns from real daily use, starting with front matter (structured data in your documents) |
templates/context-repo/ is a starter context repo you can copy as-is. It gives you a sensible folder structure, a CLAUDE.md that teaches Claude the rules of your repo, and an example playbook. The setup guide shows you how to use it.
© Chris Raastad. This guide is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Share it, adapt it, teach from it. Just credit this repo with a link.
Most people use AI like a search box. You type a question into a chat window, get an answer, and the AI forgets you ever existed. Claude Code flips that around. You give it a folder full of your real context (notes, meeting summaries, todo lists, documents, ideas) and connect it to your real tools. Now it answers from your actual life and takes action on your behalf. That folder lives on your computer, it belongs to you, and it compounds. Every note you add makes your assistant smarter about you. Structuring your knowledge so an AI can act on it reliably even has a name now. It's called context engineering, and it is quickly becoming the most valuable non-technical skill there is.
Made by Chris Raastad. Questions, feedback, or want a hand getting set up? Say hi on LinkedIn.