Short answer: if you are new to Claude Code, start here. Install the Claude desktop app, take a paid plan (the biggest one if you can), create a project with its own folder in the Code tab, pick Opus 5.5 with Medium effort, let Claude install Git and Docker for you, then add the free MVP System Design skill. After that, your machine is ready to build a real app with AI agents.
1. Choose your AI agent
First you need an AI agent to work with. To some extent that's a personal choice: if you already use a provider you like, that's fine.
I use Claude, and every example in this course uses it. You could do almost the same in Codex with OpenAI's models, except maybe the design part. If you are not very technical, my advice is to follow my lead and use Claude. It makes it much easier to do exactly what I do. Using Codex instead? Read how Codex skills work.
2. Install Claude and pick a paid plan
- Go to claude.ai.
- Download the desktop app.
- Create your account.
If you are going to code with Claude, or with any AI agent, you almost certainly need a paid subscription. Coding burns through tokens faster than almost any other task.
| Plan | Price | For coding |
|---|---|---|
| Max 20x, the biggest | about $200 a month | use this one |
| Max 5x | about $100 a month | you'll hit the limits fast |
Plan names and prices are from the day I recorded the video; they change.
3. Create a project of its own
In the app, open the Code tab and click New. Then create an environment for your project:
- Click New environment and choose Local: we keep everything on your computer for now.
- Give it a name. Mine is Quest Guild, the app I build through the whole course.
- Click Add, then Choose, and create a new folder for it. Click Open.
- Click Create environment.
Now the project name shows under the message box. Every chat you start there happens in the context of this project, which is exactly what you want.
The name is an internal one, not your marketing name. You can find a marketing name later, so don't spend long on it here.
One note: Anthropic changes the interface a lot, and so does OpenAI. Even a month from now your screen may look different. If a button isn't where I say, look around a bit.
4. Pick the model and the effort
Next to the message box is the model picker. From my experiments, nothing below Opus 5.5 is worth using for this, at least as of when I recorded the video.
Set the effort to Medium. That's enough for most tasks. If the AI struggles with one, go one level up. I use Medium all the time and Max whenever Medium isn't enough.
5. Let Claude install Git and Docker
Your first message to Claude:
Check whether I have the following installed, and install anything that is missing: Git, Docker (or Docker Desktop).
If something is missing, Claude walks you through installing it. You can also just type "install git" or "install docker".
6. Add the MVP System Design skill
This is the main step. Get the free skill, then paste its link into the chat with "install skill" in front of it, and Claude installs it.
MVP System Design is a skill I made. It covers the whole process of building, shipping and running an application:
- How the app is built: the overall design, the tools, the folder layout.
- Running it: logs, and three copies of the app: development on your computer, stage as a rehearsal copy, production as the live app.
- Shipping safely: releases, cloud setup, alerts when something breaks.
- Quality: task tracking, tests, automatic code checks.
- Users and safety: screen design, security, and rate limits, which cap how often someone can repeat an action and so block abuse.
The skill is open source, so you can check exactly what's inside. Reading every file takes about five minutes. It's only instructions for the AI: no code to run, nothing that can mess up your computer.
Beginner questions
Do I need to be a developer? No, but you should be comfortable in a terminal and with an AI agent like Claude Code. The agent does the heavy lifting; the skill tells it what good looks like.
What do I write in CLAUDE.md? The rules Claude should follow in every session: how to work, how to test, what never to do. Here is what to put in CLAUDE.md, with a template.
What are skills and hooks? Skills teach Claude how to do a kind of task; hooks stop it from doing something it shouldn't. Start with Claude Code skills and hooks.
Once everything is installed, you are ready to go. Next: turn your idea into a spec. Before this: build an MVP in one week with AI agents. My whole workflow, on one page: Claude Code best practices.