## Lesson 1: Introduction to Claude
_⏱ ~10 min read_
> **Before you start.** A few one-time site notes:
>
> - **Mark each lesson complete as you go.** Use the Mark complete button at the top of every lesson — your progress saves locally in this browser.
> - **Search the course** with the box in the top-left sidebar. Lesson titles, headings, and body text are all indexed.
> - **Lesson 1 (Introduction) and Lessons 2–5 (Chat) are free.** Lesson 1 starts in the browser for the easiest first win; Lessons 2–5 use the Claude Desktop app's Chat tab by default, with `claude.ai` as a fallback. Lesson 6 onward needs a paid Claude plan for the hands-on exercises. If you are buying only for the course, Pro is enough for about a month.
### Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Explain, in one sentence, what Claude is, who made it, and what it is useful for — without making it sound like magic or dismissing it as a toy
- Sign in to `claude.ai`, send your first message, and receive your first reply
- Find any file on your own computer (Finder on Mac, Explorer on Windows) well enough to upload it to Claude in Lesson 2
- Name the three sections of the course — Chat, Cowork, and Code — and say one sentence about what each section teaches
- Set up your course folder on the Desktop and organize a handful of files inside it — using Finder or Explorer, not the terminal
- Install and sign into the Claude Desktop app so it is ready to become your course cockpit in Lesson 2
### Part 1.1 — What Is Claude?
**Concept:** Claude is an AI assistant made by a company called Anthropic. It reads what you type, thinks about it, and types back. That is the basic mechanism. It can also use tools you turn on, like file uploads, Web search, and Research, but it is not magic: it works from its model, the current conversation, the context you provide, and any enabled tools. It is not alive, it does not "know" you, and you should not assume a new chat remembers your life or your project unless you have intentionally put that context somewhere persistent. What Claude *is* good at is reading text, writing text, answering questions, summarizing long documents, brainstorming ideas, drafting emails, and explaining things in plain English. What it is *not* good at is being right 100% of the time — it can and will say things that are plausible and wrong, and learning to notice when that happens is a skill this course teaches explicitly.
> **Illustration:** Claude is a very fast, very well-read colleague who never gets tired, never gets annoyed, and never says "I'll get back to you." They are sitting across the table from you right now, ready to help. They are also a colleague who occasionally makes something up and says it with total confidence — so you treat their work the way you would treat the first draft from a smart but new hire: useful, but always worth a second look.
**What Claude is NOT:**
- Not just a search engine (plain chat works from the model, your conversation, and whatever you paste or attach; when Web search or Research is turned on, Claude can search and cite sources, and you still verify important facts)
- Not a person (it has no feelings or personal opinions — though it can be very convincing at sounding like it does)
- Not free above a certain usage level (Lessons 1–5 are free; Lessons 6–24 need a paid plan — see the "Before You Sign Up" section at the top of this syllabus)
- Not infallible (the course will teach you to spot and handle mistakes, starting on Lesson 4)
**Guided Exercise: Your first message to Claude**
**Wrap:** Claude is a fast, well-read colleague who occasionally makes things up. Treat every answer like a first draft from a smart new hire.
### Part 1.2 — The Three Sections at a Glance
**Concept:** Before you start learning individual skills, it helps to see the whole map. This lesson — the Introduction — *is* the map. After it, the course has three sections, one sentence each, read once and then forgotten until you need to orient yourself later.
> **Illustration:** The first time you drive to a new city, you glance at the whole route on a map before you start. You don't memorize every turn — you just want to know "highway for an hour, then city streets, then park near the river." This lesson is that one glance.
**The three sections:**
| Section | Lessons | One sentence |
|-------|---------|--------------|
| **Chat** (free) | 2–5 | Talk to Claude in the Claude Desktop app's Chat tab, using text, images, and documents. If the app is not working yet, use `claude.ai` in your browser as the fallback. |
| **Cowork** (paid) | 6–9 | Stay in the same Claude Desktop app and switch to the Cowork tab — delegate tasks, wire up connectors (Gmail, Canva), and schedule recurring work. |
| **Code** (paid) | 10–24 | Stay in the same Claude Desktop app and switch to the Code tab — point Claude at a folder on your computer and let it read, write, and edit your files directly. From first commit through planning, parallel sessions, custom plugins, multi-agent patterns, and the web/mobile/eval capstone. |
You do not need to understand any of those terms yet. By the end of each section, you will.
**Wrap:** Three sections, one sentence each. Glance, forget, move on.
### Part 1.3 — Finding Files on Your Computer
**Concept:** Starting on Lesson 2, you will upload files to Claude — PDFs, images, documents. To upload a file, you need to know where it lives on your computer. This lesson is about building that skill using the tools you already have: **Finder** on Mac, **File Explorer** on Windows. No terminal, no command line, no code. Just the same folder-and-file navigation you use every day, made deliberate.
> **Illustration:** Your computer's files are organized like a building. The top floor is your home folder (usually your username). Inside it are rooms: Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Pictures. Inside each room are filing cabinets (subfolders), and inside those are individual papers (files). You already know how to walk through a building. You are just going to walk through this one on purpose, so you know where to find things when Claude asks.
**The three places files tend to live:**
| Location | What's usually in it | Where Claude exercises will point |
|---|---|---|
| **Desktop** | Whatever you drop there. Screenshots, downloads, quick notes. | Your `cowork-practice` folder (Lesson 6), daily briefings (Lesson 9). |
| **Documents** | Longer-term files you've organized on purpose. | Reference files you'll attach to Projects (Lesson 8). |
| **Downloads** | Everything your browser has ever downloaded. Usually messy. | PDFs and images you'll upload to Claude Chat (Lesson 2). |
**Guided Exercise: The treasure hunt**
This exercise is deliberately low-tech. You are not learning a new skill — you are rehearsing a skill you already have so it's fast and automatic when Lesson 2 asks you to "upload a PDF."
**Wrap:** Desktop, Documents, Downloads — three places, one new folder. You now know where your files live well enough to hand them to Claude tomorrow.
### Part 1.4 — Setting Up Your Course Workspace
**Concept:** You need one folder where course work lives. Not scattered across the Desktop, not buried in Downloads, not in five different places. One folder, with a handful of subfolders inside it, created right now so it's ready before Lesson 2.
> **Illustration:** A chef's first act in a new kitchen is not cooking — it is *mise en place*: setting up the cutting board, lining up the bowls, putting the ingredients within reach. Your course folder is the mise en place for the rest of the course.
**Guided Exercise: Build the course folder**
Using Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows):
**Why no terminal yet?** You might be wondering whether this course expects you to become a terminal person. It does not. Lesson 1 starts in the browser. Lessons 2–5 use the Claude Desktop app's Chat tab by default, with `claude.ai` as a normal fallback. Lessons 6–9 stay in the same Desktop app and move to Cowork. Lessons 10–24 stay in the same Desktop app and move to Code, mostly through a point-and-click folder picker and reviewable prompts. Lesson 10 includes one small Git drill that shows the commands behind Claude Code's safety net; if the terminal is a hard stop, the lesson gives you a read-only path and lets you ask Claude Code to run the commands for you on Lesson 11. Terminal-first Claude Code lives in optional Bonus D at the end of the course. For now, Finder and Explorer are everything you need. The file system concepts are the same either way: folders inside folders, files inside folders, paths that describe where things live.
**Wrap:** One folder, four subfolders, one journal file. Your workspace is ready. Tomorrow you will start using it.
### Part 1.5 — Install the Course Cockpit
**Concept:** You started in the browser because it is the simplest door into Claude: no install, no permissions, no extra moving parts. Starting tomorrow, the Claude Desktop app becomes your home base. It has three tabs — **Chat**, **Cowork**, and **Code** — and the course is designed so those tabs become familiar before they become powerful.
> **Illustration:** Today you walked through the front door. Now you are putting a key on your keyring. Tomorrow you will use that key without thinking about it.
**Guided Exercise: Install and sign in**
**Wrap:** Lesson 1 used the browser for the first win. Lesson 2 starts building muscle memory in the Desktop app.
### Knowledge Check
1. In one sentence, what is Claude, and who made it?
2. Name the three sections of the course (Chat, Cowork, Code) and say one thing each section teaches.
3. Where on your computer do downloaded PDFs usually end up, and how do you find them?
4. What is the name of the folder you just created for this course, and what four subfolders are inside it?
5. What are the three tabs in the Claude Desktop app, and which one will you use in Lesson 2?
### Key Takeaways
- Claude is a fast, well-read AI colleague that occasionally makes things up. Treat every answer like a first draft from a smart new hire.
- After this Introduction, the course has three sections: Chat → Cowork → Code. Lesson 1 starts in the browser; Lessons 2–5 use Desktop Chat by default with browser fallback. Lessons 6–24 are paid course content, and hands-on Cowork/Code exercises need a paid Claude plan. Pro is enough if you are buying only for the course.
- You do not need terminal fluency for the main course. You need to know where your files live (Desktop, Documents, Downloads) and how to find them in Finder or Explorer; the one small Git drill later has a read-only/Claude-assisted fallback.
- Your course workspace is one folder on the Desktop called `Claude-Course` with four subfolders: notes, uploads, drafts, downloads.
- The Claude Desktop app is the course cockpit: Chat first, then Cowork, then Code.
Free checklist
Set Claude up for one real workflow.
Get the one-page Claude Setup Checklist for Solo Operators before you start handing Claude real work.