Beginner's Guide to Claude Code on the Desktop App

You’ve likely reached the point where using AI is starting to feel like an advanced Google search and you want to take the next step, maybe build something. Claude Code is usually where most people end up.

The catch, historically, was that Claude Code lived in the terminal: a text-only interface most people have never had a reason to open. The Claude Desktop App puts Claude Code inside a familiar chat interface anyone who’s used Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT can pick up.

Get started immediately:

1. Download the Claude Desktop App.
2. Create a folder on your computer for your project.
3. Into the folder, save a plain text project brief, design or inspiration for your project, any research that’s worth sharing.
4. Open Claude Desktop App, select Claude Code and point it to the folder you just created.
5. Start building.

What makes Claude Code different

It does the work for you

Regular Claude chat is useful, but it has a built-in limit: it talks, you do. Ask it to draft an email and it sends the words back in the chat for you to copy out. Ask it how to organise a folder of holiday photos and it tells you what to name each subfolder. You’re still the one creating the files, naming them, putting things in the right place.

Claude Code closes that gap. Point it at a folder on your computer and it acts on the folder directly. It writes the words straight into a document, creates the subfolders, drops the files where they belong, makes the changes you asked for. You direct, Claude does.

Claude Code vs Claude Cowork

Both tools take actions on your behalf rather than only generating text, but they’re built for different jobs. Claude Cowork is great at: drafting documents, working through spreadsheets, building presentations. Claude Code is focused on building software and working with the files on your computer.

If what you want to make is a website, an app, or any project that ends up as a folder full of files, Claude Code is the right tool.

Getting the Claude Desktop App

You need two things to get going:

1. A paid Anthropic plan: Pro ($20/month) gives you access. Max ($100 or $200/month) significantly raises your usage limits[03]. Team and Enterprise plans include Claude Code as well.
2. The Claude Desktop App: Download it, sign in with your account, and you’re in. Claude Code is built into the app.

Download the Claude Desktop App →

Setting up your workspace

A workspace is just the folder Claude Code works inside, your project folder.

Create a dedicated folder before you start

Once Claude Code gets going, it creates files. Without a folder set aside for it to work in, those files end up scattered wherever Claude decides to put them, which can get messy.

Before you start a session, create an empty folder somewhere logical on your computer. Give it a descriptive name: my-portfolio-site, family-budget-tool, something that tells you at a glance what’s inside. This folder is your workspace. Everything Claude Code creates for the project lives in here.

What to put in that folder

You technically don’t need anything to start. However, a few things help Claude get its bearings and you get better results:

• A short brief or overview in plain text (or a markdown file, if you know what that is) describing what you want to build. Treat it like project instructions if you were having a freelancer build it.
• Any design assets, screenshots, or references you’d like Claude to work from: exported designs, colour palette notes, images you like the look of.
• Any research you’ve already pulled together.

You can start with an empty folder and describe everything in the chat. The more context Claude has up front, the better the initial results will be.

Pointing Claude Code to your workspace

When you open a new Claude Code session in the Desktop App, it asks you to pick a folder. Pick the one you just made. Claude Code will read its contents and use them as the starting point for the session.

The modes, explained

Claude Code has four main permission modes that control how much it can do without checking in with you first[01]. You can switch between them in the Desktop App using Shift+Ctrl+M (shown as ↑ Ctrl M in the menu), or by clicking the mode indicator.

Ask permissions

In this mode, Claude checks in before doing anything: editing a file, running a command, calling out to a service. You approve or reject each action one at a time. It’s slower, but you’re never surprised by a change you didn’t expect.

Start here initially. Once you have a feel for what Claude Code typically does, move to a less restrictive mode.

Accept edits

Claude approves its own file edits. If it wants to update three files, it makes all three changes without asking. It still checks in before running commands or anything that reaches outside your folder. A reasonable middle ground once you trust where the session is heading.

Plan mode - start your project here

Plan mode is the thinking-before-doing option. Claude reads through your folder, maps out what it intends to do, and shows you the plan. Nothing runs. No files change. You read the plan, redirect it if needed, and only press go once you’re happy.

Ask Claude to plan a new app before it writes a single file and you’ll catch problems early rather than untangling half-built work later.

Use this mode before starting your build. Claude will usually ask you clarifying questions and plan out an approach rather than build on the fly. You’ll end up needing to fix less later.

Bypass permissions

Full autonomy. Claude does whatever it wants without asking. For experienced users in a folder they understand well, this is a real time-saver. For first timers, or any folder with files you care about, it can be risky.

Auto mode

Auto mode is greyed out in the main mode menu with the label “Enable in Claude Code settings”. Once turned on in settings, it judges each action Claude wants to take: safe changes are approved automatically, risky ones (mass file deletion, anything touching sensitive paths) get flagged for review.

Persistent memory with CLAUDE.md

Every Claude Code session starts fresh. Without something to give it persistent context, you’ll spend the first few minutes of every session re-explaining your project and what you’re up to.

To help resolve this, you can add a CLAUDE.md into your workspace folder. Claude Code reads it at the start of every session to orient itself.

What goes in it: an overview of the project, what it’s meant to do, how you like to work, decisions you’ve made, anything the previous session left half-finished. Start simple. A few bullet points describing the project and what it’s for. You can amend it as you go.

The real payoff with CLAUDE.md is continuity. You can pick a project up after two weeks away and Claude will know exactly where you left it.

Here’s a good guide on how to create a CLAUDE.md. If you’ve never used markdown before, a good approach would be to get Claude to help you create a CLAUDE.md for you after you’ve started the first session and it’s been able to review the content in your folder.

# Project Context
- Project: [1-2 sentences explaining what the project is, e.g., "A portfolio website for a freelance photographer"].

# Standards and Conventions
- Language: MUST use British English spelling (en-GB) in all user-facing copy and documentation (e.g., "colour", "organisation"). Don't use em-dashes.
- Style: Favour simple, readable code over highly condensed logic. Leave existing comments intact unless they are factually incorrect.
- Prohibited Actions: [e.g., "MUST NOT modify the final copy doc without explicit permission"].

# Agent Behaviour and Handoff
- Workflow: Always explore the workspace first, create a brief plan (1-2 bullets), execute the code, and then verify the output.
- Communication: Be direct and concise. If a request is vague, you MUST ask clarifying questions before generating large amounts of code.
- Session Handoff: When I indicate a session is ending (e.g., "that's all for today", "we will pick this up next time"), you MUST provide a markdown code block to update the "Active Session State" section below. The update should summarise what was just completed and what the exact next steps are.

# Active Session State
- Current Phase: [e.g., "Prototyping the main navigation bar"].
- Open Threads: [e.g., "Currently debugging a state mismatch when the mobile menu opens. Next step is to check the context provider logic"].
- Lessons Learned: [e.g., "Always use the primary brand colour (dark blue) for buttons"].

Using Claude Code remotely on your phone

Set Claude running on a longer task and you don’t need to sit at your computer waiting for it to finish.

The /remote-control feature creates link between your Claude Code session and the Claude mobile app[02]. It’s available on every paid plan. Type /remote-control into the chat input, scan the QR code with your phone, and you can monitor progress, review proposed changes, and approve or reject actions from anywhere. Make sure your computer is running with the Claude Code session active.

Everything still runs on your computer; your phone is just the remote.

Level up with Skills

Ask a regular AI to build a webpage from scratch and you’ll usually get what people call “AI slop”: generic, predictable style and default fonts that most AI-generated sites use.

Skills can help with that. They’re pre-built sets of instructions that turn Claude Code into a specialist. Install one through the app’s plugin menu and you can manually trigger it by using /skill-name or just tell Claude to use a particular skill by referring to it.

One to try first is the official /frontend-design skill. With it installed, typing /frontend-design build a weather app gets you something with proper visual hierarchy and components that look designed rather than default.

Where to go from here

When the Desktop App starts feeling like it’s holding you back, you have three places to go next.

• The Claude Code extension for VS Code[04] adds Claude Code to VS Code, the free code editor most people start with when they’re learning to write code.
• Cursor is a paid editor with AI built in from the ground up, worth a look once you’re writing code regularly.
• Or go straight to the source: open Terminal on Mac or Windows, install Claude Code, and then type claude any time you want to start.