A chat window with your computer. You type a short instruction, press Enter, and the computer replies in text. No icons, no menus, no mouse. That is all a terminal is.
Two words get mixed up:
- The terminal is the window (Windows Terminal, macOS Terminal, Konsole on Linux).
- The shell is the program inside it that understands your commands (PowerShell on Windows, zsh or bash on Mac and Linux). The line ending in
>or$where you type is the shell’s prompt.PS C:\Users\You>means PowerShell.
Programmers use terminals because they are fast and precise. You will use one because Claude Code lives in it, and because three commands cover everything the course needs:
| Command | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
cd | change directory: move into a [[Folder | folder]] |
mkdir | make a folder | mkdir ai-school |
claude | start Claude Code in the current folder | claude |
Everything else you type is a sentence to Claude, not a command. You can even skip cd: on Windows, right-click a folder in Explorer and choose Open in Terminal; on a Mac, drag the folder onto the Terminal icon. The window opens already inside that folder.
Example
You open Terminal, type cd Documents\ai-school, then claude. The prompt changes into Claude Code’s welcome screen. From here on you are talking to the agent, and the shell is behind it, running the commands the agent asks to run, after you approve.
Why it matters for you
The terminal is the client where nothing is hidden: every file read, every command, every permission prompt is visible as text. The graphical clients wrap the same thing in buttons. Ten minutes in a terminal removes most of the mystery about “AI on my computer”.
Related
- Claude Code in the terminal - the practical guide
- Install Claude Code on Windows - which terminal to open on Windows 11 and why
- Harness - what runs the commands you approve
- Command-line program - programs you run by typing, from here