Claude Code CLI: Complete Tutorial & Best Practices (2026)

Category: AI Coding Difficulty: Intermediate Updated: 2026-05-26

Complete tutorial for Claude Code CLI. Learn installation, setup, command patterns, and workflows for terminal-based AI coding assistance.

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is Anthropic's terminal-based AI coding agent. It runs directly in your terminal, reads your codebase, and can execute commands, edit files, and manage git.

Installation

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
# Or use the Docker image:
docker pull anthropic/claude-code

Essential Commands

claude — Start interactive mode in current directory
claude -p "describe this project" — One-shot prompt
claude -f feat/branch-name — Create a feature branch and implement
/review — Inside Claude Code, review recent changes
claude -e "increase timeout to 60s" — Edit files with natural language