Installation: VS Code + Claude Code + GitHub

Prerequisites 1. VS Code 2. Claude Code Extension 3. Sign Up & Install GitHub

✔ Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following before you begin.

💻

Operating System

macOS 13+ | Windows 10+

💾

Disk Space

~1 GB free

🌐

Internet

Stable connection required

👤

GitHub Account

Free account at github.com

🕑

Claude Subscription

Claude Pro or Max plan

🔨 Part 1: Install Visual Studio Code

Download and install VS Code for your operating system.

📦

Download Visual Studio Code

Go to the VS Code website

Visit code.visualstudio.com and click the download button for your OS.

📥 Download VS Code

Install VS Code

macOS: Open the downloaded .dmg file and drag Visual Studio Code to your Applications folder.

Windows: Run the downloaded .exe installer and follow the setup wizard. Check “Add to PATH” when prompted.

Launch VS Code

Open Visual Studio Code from your Applications (macOS) or Start Menu (Windows) to verify it works.

🔌 Part 2: Install the Claude Code Extension

Add the Claude Code extension to Visual Studio Code.

🔌

Install Claude Code Extension in VS Code

Open VS Code

Launch Visual Studio Code on your computer.

Open the Extensions panel

Click the Extensions icon in the left sidebar, or press:

Cmd + Shift + X (macOS) / Ctrl + Shift + X (Windows)

Search for “Claude Code”

Type Claude Code in the search bar. Look for the official extension by Anthropic.

Install the extension

Click the Install button on the Claude Code extension.

ℹ Make sure it is the official extension published by Anthropic.

Authenticate with your Claude account

After installation, open the Claude Code panel in VS Code. It will prompt you to sign in. Your browser will open for a one-time authentication.

Verify the setup

After signing in, the Claude Code panel should show a chat interface inside VS Code.

💡 You can open the Claude Code panel anytime using Cmd + Shift + P (macOS) / Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows) and typing “Claude Code”.

👤 Part 3: Sign Up and Install for GitHub

Your homepage is hosted for free on GitHub Pages, so you’ll need a GitHub account, plus Git and the GitHub CLI (gh) on your computer.

👤

Create a GitHub Account

Go to the GitHub sign-up page

Visit github.com/signup.

👤 Sign Up for GitHub

Create your account

Enter your email address, create a password, and choose a username. Complete the verification puzzle when prompted.

⚠ Choose your username carefully — your homepage will later be published at https://<username>.github.io.

Verify your email

GitHub sends a confirmation code to the email you signed up with. Enter it to activate your account.

Sign in

Log in at github.com/login to confirm everything works. You’ll use this same account to install and log in to the GitHub CLI next.

🌱 macOS

📱 Windows

🌱

Install Git & GitHub CLI on macOS

Install Homebrew (if you don’t already have it)

terminal

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Git and GitHub CLI

terminal

brew install git gh

Log in to GitHub

terminal

gh auth login

Choose GitHub.com → HTTPS → Login with a web browser, and follow the prompts.

💡 Sign in with the account you just created in Step 1.

📱

Install Git & GitHub CLI on Windows

Download Git for Windows

Visit git-scm.com/download/win, download the installer, and run it with the default options.

Download the GitHub CLI

Visit cli.github.com, download the Windows installer (.msi), and run it.

Log in to GitHub

Open Command Prompt and run:

cmd

gh auth login

Choose GitHub.com → HTTPS → Login with a web browser, and follow the prompts.

💡 Sign in with the account you just created in Step 1.

💡 That’s everything you need. Claude Code can install any other tools it needs (Ruby, Jekyll) for you as part of building your homepage — head to the Building Guide to get started.