How to use Claude Code in VS Code's terminal like a pro

February 14, 2026 | 2 min read

On November 24th one of my dev friends (hey Maciej!) told me I could run Claude Code in VS Code’s terminal. I had no idea. Shame on me I guess. Since then I’ve been building all the things I always wanted but never had a developer for.

Step 1: Install Node.js

Claude Code needs Node.js to run. Don’t ask me what it actually does. I installed it and moved on.

Head to nodejs.org, grab the LTS version, install it. To confirm it worked, open VS Code’s terminal (Terminal > New Terminal from the top menu) and run:

node --version

You want 18 or higher.

Step 2: Install Claude Code

Same terminal. Run:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Wait for it to finish. Done.

Step 3: Launch it

Open your project folder in VS Code, open the terminal, and type:

claude

First time it’ll ask you to log in. You need a Claude Pro, Max, or API account. It opens a browser link, you authenticate, come back. That’s the whole setup.

When things break

“command not found” — Close VS Code, reopen, try again. Works embarrassingly often.

Node.js too old — Grab a fresh LTS version from nodejs.org.

Permission errors — Paste the error into any AI chat and ask for help. That’s what I do.

Login issues — The login opens in your browser. If it’s not working, clear browser cookies, try incognito, log in again.

Anything else — If I didn’t cover your problem here, just screenshot the terminal error and paste it into any AI chat. Ask it to help. No shame in that. I do the exact same thing every single day. My entire debugging strategy is asking AI to fix the AI setup.

Summary

Install Node.js. Install Claude Code. Type claude in your project folder. When something breaks, screenshot it and ask AI.

If I figured this out as a designer who’s never written a line of code, you’ll be fine.

Oh, and for those of us born before 2000: Cmd+ zooms in the terminal text. Killer feature.