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Onboarding for AI productsDev toolsclaude.com ↗

Claude Code (Anthropic)

A terminal agent whose onboarding runs as a keyboard-only wizard the first time you type `claude`: an ASCII-art welcome, a text-style (theme) picker, a login-method choice that hands off to the browser, then a boxed welcome panel with tips and an empty prompt.

First run in a VS Code terminal: "Welcome to Claude Code" art, "Let's get started." and the Dark/Light text-style picker
First run in a VS Code terminal: "Welcome to Claude Code" art, "Let's get started." and the Dark/Light text-style picker · Technically Curious (Substack)
Post-login welcome panel with account/model info, "Tips for getting started" (/init), and a first "hello" exchange
Post-login welcome panel with account/model info, "Tips for getting started" (/init), and a first "hello" exchange · Technically Curious (Substack)

Notes

  • First run opens with "Welcome to Claude Code v2.x", a pixel-art mascot scene, "Let's get started." and "Choose the text style that looks best with your terminal" (Dark mode / Light mode), with the hint "To change this later, run /theme" — the first question is about legibility, not the user.
  • The Technically Curious guide (written for non-developer business users) walks the remaining steps: pick dark/light, choose login method "1. Claude account with subscription" which opens the browser, return to the terminal, then answer an effort question ("high effort" vs "medium effort").
  • The same guide warns that signing up mid-authentication is "buggy" and tells readers to create a paid Claude account before installing — the CLI assumes an existing account.
  • After login the session shows a bordered panel: "Welcome back Katie!", model/plan/name/working directory on the left, and "Tips for getting started" ("Run /init to create a CLAUDE.md file…", a note about launching in the home directory) plus "Recent activity" on the right, with "? for shortcuts" under the input.
  • Anthropic's Quickstart lists the accepted account types (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise, Console with a "Claude Code" workspace auto-created on first login, Bedrock/Vertex-style cloud providers, or a corporate gateway) and skips the login prompt if ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set, asking the user to approve the key instead.
  • The docs' suggested first prompts are codebase-orientation questions ("what does this project do?", "explain the folder structure") before any edit, then "add a hello world function to the main file".

Patterns

terminal wizardtheme picker firstbrowser auth handofftips panelsuggested first promptsCLAUDE.md init nudge

Articles

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