Installing Claude Code on macOS - the honest step-by-step guide

Claude Code is Anthropic’s command-line tool that brings an AI assistant directly into your work on the Mac - for text, spreadsheets, scripts, research. The appeal for Swiss SMEs: you can instruct Claude to read a file, generate a table, or review a contract without uploading your data through the web interface.

This guide walks you step by step through installation, login, and your first useful prompt. Written for employees without an IT background - if you have never seen a terminal window before, that is perfectly fine.

Before you start: what you need and what you do not need

You need:

• A Mac with macOS 13 or newer. How to check: Apple menu at the top left, then “About This Mac”. If it says “Ventura”, “Sonoma”, or higher, you are ready.
• A Claude subscription. Free claude.ai is not enough. Minimum is Claude Pro (CHF 20/month). Companies usually use Claude Team or Enterprise.
• Admin rights on the Mac. On corporate Macs with strict device management you will need to involve your IT team.

You do not need:

• Programming skills.
• A GitHub account.
• A credit card for a new sign-up (if you already have a Claude subscription).

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Step 1: Open Terminal and check your Mac version

Terminal is the program we use to install Claude Code. No worries - you will type exactly three commands, copied and pasted.

How to open Terminal:

1. Press Cmd + Space. Spotlight opens.
2. Type “Terminal” and press Enter.
3. A dark or light window opens with a blinking cursor.

Screenshot 01 · pending Open Terminal via Spotlight

Now type the following command (or paste it), then press Enter:

sw_vers -productVersion

The output shows your macOS version. If you see numbers like 13.x, 14.x, or 15.x, you are good to go. If you see 12.x or older, update macOS first, then come back.

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Step 2: Install Claude Code

For most Mac users the native installer is the right path. It updates automatically and requires nothing extra. Paste this command into your Terminal window and press Enter:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

The terminal now shows a few lines of output: download, unpack, install. After 10 to 30 seconds it reports “Claude Code installed” or a similar message.

Screenshot 02 · pending Installer output in Terminal

Alternative: installation via Homebrew

If you already use Homebrew, you can install with:

brew install --cask claude-code

Difference: Homebrew installations do not update automatically. Pull updates manually with brew upgrade claude-code.

Alternative: installation via npm

Only for users with Node.js 18 or newer already installed:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Do not use sudo - it leads to permission problems.

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Step 3: Verify the installation

Close the Terminal window completely once (Cmd + Q) and open it again. This makes sure the path to the new claude application is loaded.

Type:

claude --version

The output is a version number, such as 2.1.89. If instead you see command not found: claude, check the pitfalls section at the end of this guide.

Screenshot 03 · pending Version verified successfully

For a more detailed diagnostic (optional, very useful if you run into issues):

claude doctor

This checks your installation against all relevant points and reports what, if anything, is missing.

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Step 4: Sign in

Start Claude Code for the first time:

claude

On first launch, Claude Code automatically opens your default browser and asks you to log in at claude.ai. Sign in with the account of your Claude subscription and confirm the authentication.

Screenshot 04 · pending Confirm login in the browser

Once signed in, you can close the browser tab. The terminal reports “Authentication successful” and displays the Claude Code start screen.

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Step 5: Choose a project folder

Claude Code always operates in the folder you start it in. This matters for data protection: Claude reads and edits only files in that folder, not everywhere on your Mac.

Create a folder now for your first experiments:

mkdir ~/claude-test
cd ~/claude-test
claude

Three commands:

• mkdir ~/claude-test - creates the folder.
• cd ~/claude-test - switches into the folder.
• claude - starts Claude Code in the current folder.

Screenshot 05 · pending Start Claude Code in the project folder

DSG note: For customer data or sensitive company documents, do not use a folder like ~/Documents - it often holds things Claude should not read. Always create a dedicated project folder.

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Step 6: Your first prompt

Now it gets useful. Type this in the Claude Code window:

Create a file `notes.md` with a simple template for meeting minutes. English, Swiss company context, per meeting: date, attendees, agenda items, decisions, open items.

Claude responds, proposes a template, and asks whether it may create the file. Confirm with y. Open the ~/claude-test folder in Finder - the file notes.md is there.

Screenshot 06 · pending The first prompt creates a file

That is the difference from ChatGPT in the browser: Claude Code works with your files, not just about them.

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What next?

Three sensible next steps:

1. Choose a real working folder. Create a folder for a concrete project and start Claude Code there.
2. Type /help. Shows the most important commands that Claude Code understands internally (/clear, /config, /model, and more).
3. Experiment with permissions. By default, Claude asks before every change. That is the right setting for getting started - you see what will happen before it happens.

And the data protection question?

Claude Code sends your inputs and the contents of the files it works with to Anthropic. The data is used to generate the response. With Claude Pro and Claude Max your data is not used for model training. The same applies to Claude Team and Enterprise, with the addition of a data processing agreement (DPA).

Important for Swiss companies: Anthropic processes data primarily in US data centers. For sensitive personal data you need consent compliant with the Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG) or a justification under Art. 31 of the revised DSG (nDSG). More on this in our DSG guide for AI in Swiss SMEs.