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Last Updated: August 6, 2026

Claude Code 101

Claude Code lets you work on Tierra's projects by talking to Claude in plain English. You say what you want, and Claude does the technical part: opening files, making the change, and saving it back. You don't need to be a developer. This page takes you from nothing to a working setup.

Before you start

You need three things:

  • Your Tierra Claude account. Everyone on the team has one. If you can't sign in, or it asks you to pay, contact HR. Don't buy your own plan.
  • A GitHub account, and Git installed. GitHub Basics covers both and takes about five minutes. Do that page first.
  • 30 to 45 minutes, once. After this, opening a project takes seconds.

Step 1 — Get the Claude desktop app

Use the desktop app. Not the browser.

  1. Go to claude.ai/download and get the app for your computer, Mac or Windows.
  2. Install it and open it.
  3. Sign in with your Tierra Claude account.
  4. Click the Code tab at the top. That's Claude Code.

If it asks you to upgrade, your account isn't on the Tierra plan. Sign out, sign back in with your Tierra account, and if it still asks, contact HR.

The browser version cannot do this work

Claude in a browser cannot see the files on your own computer. It works on files stored online instead. That means every folder step on this page won't match, and the audit tool won't work at all. This has already cost someone an afternoon. If you find yourself working in a browser tab, close it and open the desktop app.

Prefer a different app?

Nimbalyst on Windows and Conductor on Mac also run Claude Code (nimbalyst.com/download, conductor.build). They're fine for general work, but connectors behave differently in them, and some versions switch connectors off entirely. The audit tool needs a connector to read data, so use the Claude desktop app for audit work until you're comfortable.

If you do install Nimbalyst on Windows, do one thing first. It carries its own copy of Claude, and that copy tries to update itself while it's running. When that goes wrong, Nimbalyst can't start Claude at all and you can't sign in. Two people here have lost an evening to it. Open PowerShell as your normal user, not as administrator, and paste this one line. The folder you run it from doesn't matter.

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER','1','User')

Then install Nimbalyst. If you already installed it and hit the problem, see Nimbalyst.

Step 2 — Make your project folder

Claude Code works inside one folder on your own computer. "On your own computer" is what people mean by "local", as opposed to files that live online. You point Claude at one folder, and everything you work on goes inside it.

One folder for all your Tierra work is the simplest setup. Each tool gets its own subfolder inside it. You don't need a separate project per tool.

  1. On your Desktop, create a folder called claude-code. That's it. Somewhere you can find it in two seconds is worth more than a clever name.
  2. In Claude Code, click Select folder and choose it.

That folder is now your project. The team's skills and each tool land inside it as subfolders. You set this up once.

Already have a folder you work in?

Point Claude Code at that one instead. The name doesn't matter, only that you can find it again.

Step 3 — Install Node.js

Node.js is a small free program that lets Claude Code run setup steps for the skills and the tools. Install it once and forget it.

Easiest way is to let Claude do it. Paste this into the chat:

Check whether Node.js is installed on my computer and whether it's up to date. If it's missing or old, install or update it to the latest stable version and tell me when you're done.

To do it yourself, go to nodejs.org, download the version marked LTS, and click through the installer with the default choices.

Step 4 — Get the team's skills

Skills are the written instructions that tell Claude how Tierra does things. They're what makes the audit tool produce a Tierra audit rather than a generic one.

They live in one project called tierra-claude-skills, and you connect to it once. Paste this into the chat:

Clone the GitHub repo Tierra-Agency/tierra-claude-skills into the folder I have open, then run node scripts/install-team-skills.mjs. Sign me in to GitHub if it asks.

That downloads the skills and switches them on. Restart the app afterwards, because skills only load when Claude Code starts fresh.

When skills change later

You don't reinstall. Tell Claude "pull the latest changes in the skills folder" and restart the app.

Step 5 — Add the tools you'll work in

The skills are the shared playbook. The tools are what you actually build in.

Each tool is a separate download with its own setup steps, and those steps live on the tool's own page because they differ from tool to tool.

For nearly everyone the first tool is the audit tool. Its setup is three short steps on one page. Go to Paid Media Audit Tool, do the First-time setup section, then come back here for Step 6.

Don't skip a tool's setup section

It's tempting to just ask Claude to download a project and start working. Two of the audit tool's setup steps switch on protections you can't see from the outside. Skip them and everything looks fine right up until something breaks quietly.

Step 6 — The everyday loop

Once you're set up, the day-to-day is three moves.

  1. Get the latest before you start. Paste: "Pull the latest changes before we start." This refreshes your copy with everyone else's recent work. Skipping it is the main way people overwrite each other.
  2. Say what you want in plain English, naming the file or the thing you want changed. Claude shows you the change before applying it so you can look it over.
  3. Save it back. Paste: "Commit and push." That sends your change to the shared copy, and any live site updates shortly after.

One person per file at a time

If two people change the same file at once, one person's work can get overwritten. Check nobody else is in something before you edit it. Tools with their own version of this rule spell it out on their own pages.

About approval prompts — keep them visible

Claude Code asks permission before some of the things it does. Tierra's projects arrive with the routine work already approved, so you shouldn't be clicking Allow constantly. The prompts that remain are on things worth pausing for, like saving your work, so read those rather than waving them through.

If you're being asked about routine things over and over, your copy of that project is out of date. Tell Claude to pull the latest. Don't go hunting for a way to switch approvals off across the board.

Just as important, don't leave approvals on a silent auto-approve mode either. On a long run, Claude may pause for a single approval and wait — and if prompts are set to pass silently with no sound, you can miss it. A run once sat over an hour on a prompt nobody saw. Two settings prevent it: turn on the completion sound so you hear when a run finishes or needs you, and turn on your operating system's notifications for the app so a waiting prompt shows even when the window is in the background.

Things you should never have to do

If you find yourself doing any of these, you've gone off the path.

  • Opening Git, Git Bash, Terminal, or Command Prompt. Installing Git puts a program on your computer that Claude Code uses in the background. You never open it yourself. Everything goes through the Claude Code chat.
  • Typing a command you don't understand into a black window. If Claude gives you something to run, it should also tell you what it does. If it doesn't, ask.
  • Editing files by hand in another program. Describe the change to Claude instead.

Troubleshooting

Find your symptom below. If none of these match, send your GS a screenshot of exactly where you're stuck. Don't guess past an error.

Claude Code asks me to upgrade, or I can't find the Code tab.

  • Your account isn't on the Tierra plan. Sign out and back in with your Tierra Claude account. If it still asks you to upgrade, contact HR. Don't buy your own plan.

The folder steps don't match what I'm seeing, or Claude can't see any of my files.

  • You're almost certainly in a browser tab rather than the desktop app. Claude in a browser cannot read files on your own computer, so the audit tool can't work there at all. Close the tab, install the desktop app from claude.ai/download, and start again from Claude Code 101.

Claude says a command "isn't recognized" or "command not found", for example git or node.

  • That program isn't installed. Install Git from GitHub Basics and Node.js from Claude Code 101, then try again. Quickest check is to paste: "Check whether Git and Node.js are installed and up to date, and install or update whatever is missing."

The skills don't show up after I install them.

  • Restart the app. Skills only load when Claude Code starts fresh. If they're still missing, tell Claude "run node scripts/install-team-skills.mjs again in the skills folder" and restart once more.

Claude asks me to approve every single thing it does.

  • You shouldn't be seeing that. Tierra's projects arrive with the routine work already approved, so reading, searching, and editing audits happen without asking. If you're being asked constantly, your copy of the project is out of date. Tell Claude "pull the latest changes" and try again. Don't look for a way to switch approvals off across the board, because the prompts that are left are on the things worth pausing for, like saving your work. And don't click Deny on an edit you actually asked for.

Claude says an edit was blocked by a rule or a hook, or mentions a missing program while trying to edit a file.

  • This is not the audit tool, and the audit tool is not broken. Another Tierra project carries a safety rule that inspects each edit before allowing it, and that rule needs a small helper program your computer probably doesn't have yet. It's built to refuse rather than guess when it can't run its check, so every edit gets blocked until the helper is there. Let Claude install it: paste "install what this hook needs, then retry the edit." It takes under a minute. You'll only hit this if you also work in that other project.

I'm not sure which folder I'm in, or Claude can't find a file.

  • Claude works inside the one folder you selected, and only that folder. Check you've opened your own project folder, the claude-code one, and that the project you're after was downloaded into it. If in doubt, ask Claude "what folder are we working in, and what's inside it?"
  • GitHub Basics — the account, the Git install, and what cloning and pushing mean
  • Paid Media Audit Tool — the first tool most people use Claude Code for
  • Nimbalyst — running Claude Code in Nimbalyst, and its connector fix