Claude Code is Anthropic’s agentic development tool. It runs in the terminal, IDEs, desktop and web surfaces, and automation contexts.

The current primary install path is the native installer. Do not teach npm as the default install path for new users.

Native Installer

On macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

On Windows PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

The native installer supports auto-updates and release channels. That is the main reason to prefer it over package-manager installs for most developers.

Package Managers

Homebrew and WinGet are supported alternatives:

brew install --cask claude-code

winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode

The tradeoff is update behavior. Homebrew and WinGet installations do not use Claude Code’s built-in auto-update path, so the package manager owns updates.

Windows and WSL

Claude Code supports native Windows installation. Windows Subsystem for Linux is still useful when the repository and toolchain are Linux-oriented. Choose the environment that matches the project, not the one that makes installation look shorter.

Verify the Setup

Run:

claude --version
claude doctor

claude doctor checks common environment and authentication problems. Use it before debugging a repository-specific failure.

Release Channels

Claude Code supports stable and latest channels through settings such as autoUpdatesChannel. For teaching and team onboarding, prefer stable unless a lesson explicitly depends on a new feature from the latest channel.