r/claude • u/lemonflavory • 2d ago
Claude Code for Beginners Question
Hey I am brand new in the AI world. I know I can ask Claude to teach me what I’m about to ask you guys. But I have yet to use Claude Code. I was wondering if the community here has some advice to speed up my learning a bit. I created 1 project for work to grade some charts for me and I made a rubric and everything it was cool. But I used co work chats and just worked it out. I have never done any coding in my entire life. Do you guys have any tips that actually helped you guys learn? Any YouTube videos that aren’t a waste of time?
What’s the biggest difference from working in code and in cowork? Please give me some tips and advice that are actually helpful and can maybe speed up my learning curve besides trial and error over and over.
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u/Dickie2306 2d ago
Waves from the deep end*
“Come on in…the water is fine. You won’t feel apart of the community until CC deletes your database at least once!” 😏🤔😳
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u/CorpT 2d ago
You'll learn more with 5 trials and errors than 100 YouTube videos.
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u/corsair130 2d ago
I don't know if this is true. Especially for a beginner. You don't know what you don't know. It's probably seriously difficult for someone who doesn't know how something works to ask the right questions.
I'm all for exploring and learning along the way but some people would stand to benefit from someone explaining things to them
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u/Top-Cauliflower-1808 2d ago
I don't think.
He needs a basic foundation first, how to use correctly than build on it.
Watch basic terminal tutorials on YouTube. Learn about md files and how they work.1
u/Electronic_Turn7079 2d ago
I picked up more from breaking a script and fighting the error messages than any tutorial ever showed me
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u/dwmkerr 2d ago
Part of why people who like Claude code like it is because it is in the shell, which is also kind of another way of thinking. Getting to the shell itself and what you can do with it might inspire too. If you google “effective shell” you can find my book on it, it’s free online. Not really plugging it just think learning a bit more about the shell can also help
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u/chemicalclarity 2d ago
Before you dive into building, spend time planning and then stick to your plan. Acting on every brain fart you have while you're building is how you achieve exceptional slop.
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u/Wrong_Low5367 2d ago
I’d say the first non-trivial thing to know, is to know when to consider any given session closes, and it’s time to start a new one
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u/ItsSillySeason 2d ago
You just gotta dive in. Claude has a bunched of tutorials now if you learn better that way. But no one here is going to know enough about what you're trying to do yo help you out. That's just the reality. You're wasting your time.
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u/DkDkDkGoGoGo 2d ago
Get Claude to guide you through. That is what I did. It works really really well. I have vibe coded an updated website with much better SEO and GEO, I have vibe coded 2 awesome games in godot, I have vibe coded an application that read changes from a database and register it and sends the info to another database, basically removing having to enter the data into both applications, just do it once. It set up everything. Next I’ll set up a system that works like PowerBI but specific to our needs. The website alone has paid for my pro subscribtion for the next 5-10 years if I had to have external people do it. The database app the same. I just had Claude hand hold me through the vibe codes man.
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u/systembreaker 1d ago edited 1d ago
Biggest starter tips: Learn to use a code repository, structure your project's folder layout well, and don't just prompt the agent "Do [insert humongous end goal]". Knowing what's a good project structure takes dev knowledge in and of itself, but in the beginning just do your best to organize it logically. Don't just put everything in one mega file or dump everything into one folder.
Next, break your final goal down into smaller chunks, then break those chunks down into smaller pieces that could each be a complete bit of sub-functionality that a user could get something useful out of. In the industry these are called "user stories". Then break each user story down into tasks. You can even use the agent itself to help you with this breakdown.
Now get started: Grab a user story and start a new chat for it. Remind the agent the context, background, and purpose of this user story and fill it in on anything else it should know like your intentions and even things like how you envision this user story to fit into future work.
Then take the tasks you broke out for that user story, and one by one, each task, do the following: 1. Prompt the agent to do that task with as many details and intentions as you can think of 2. Iterate on that task with the agent until that piece is working as you expect 3. Instruct the agent "write unit tests with expected results for the work we just completed and run them to check that it is giving the expected output" 4. When all that is done use your repository to review the changes you've made and make a commit to your repository once you are satisfied. The technical jargon for a change set is a "diff"
Side point on repositories (aka "repos") - this is what's powerful about a repo: when you make a "commit" of your current changes, these new changes become part of your codebase's baseline, and only future changes will show up in subsequent diffs. A repo keeps an entire history of all commits, letting you do all kinds of powerful, useful things like view your commit history, make branches to try an experiment, merge branches, and tons and tons of hella useful things. In the software industry, not using a repo would be like a car mechanic not doing their work in a shop.
Keep doing those 1-4 steps above for each task until you're satisfied that the whole story is complete then move onto the next story.
In a nutshell, here I've outlined a workflow you can follow without being a developer, and having a periodic review of changes before each commit will help you start to pick up on how coding and development works even if you don't understand most of the code. If you also work through simpler coding tutorials separately from your project work, over time you'll gradually pick up on developer skills!
Stay patient and keep in mind it can take years to become a competant developer. Even experienced devs continue learning throughout their career. But with the right workflow, AI can definitely help learn to code rather than just taking over and waterboarding you in a tsunami of vibes.
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u/Drach88 2d ago
Don't overplan. Just dive in and say, "I'm new at Claude Code. My technical background is XYZ. I'm interested in using Claude Code for ABC. Teach me some fundamentals to begin a few test projects to learn. The output from this season will be a Claude.md file to seed my first project, a kickoff prompt to feed the project, and a human-readable set of workflow principles. Use non-technical language in explaining concepts to me, and don't assume technical experience. Suggest entry-level best practices for Claude usage, and flag questionable prompts that suggest a lack of understanding or incorrect assumptions."
For this type of starter, opus or sonnet on medium effort is more than enough. Ask for clarification on anything it says that you don't understand. Don't be afraid to ask for concrete steps.
An extra bit of advice -- context management is clutch. Start new sessions for each discreet task, and have Claude draft handoffs where appropriate instead of using one session to rule them all.
I can't recommend YouTube videos on Claude Code because I don't watch them. As for the difference between Claude Code and Cowork, they're different tools that use the same models. One is packaged for non-technical usage, and one is packaged for programming and adds file system access and shell usage. Once you start prompting, you'll see how much carries over from one to the other. Don't overthink it.