First-Time Setup

Per-machine setup. Do this once on each Mac you’ll use for Claude Code projects.

Set spend caps first

Set monthly spend caps in every paid AI provider’s dashboard before generating keys. The difference between a $20 month and a $2,000 month is one runaway loop. Typical starter caps: OpenAI $50, Anthropic API $50, Perplexity $25.

Install Node 20+ and pnpm

brew install node pnpm

Verify with node --version and pnpm --version. Anything below Node 20 will break Next.js 14+.

Install Claude Code globally

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

Then claude login and complete the browser flow. Claude Code uses your Anthropic console plan, not a separate API key.

Configure user-level Claude Code

Claude Code reads configuration from two scopes: user-level (~/.claude/) and project-level (<repo>/.claude/). The project scope is set up per repo by the bootstrap prompt; the user scope you set up once per machine and reuse across every project.

Four files and folders are worth setting up at the user scope:

• ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — your personal preferences that apply across every project. Claude Code seeds this with four default headings on first run; fill in the ones you have content for and delete the rest. See CLAUDE.md.
• ~/.claude/settings.json — user-level permissions, including the .env* denylist. Setting this once means every new project inherits the secret protections even before its own settings file exists. See Security Rules.
• ~/.claude/agents/ — user-level sub-agents. Three worth dropping in straight away: a context Compressor, a Code Reviewer, and an Adversarial Reviewer. They become available in every session on this machine. See Subagents for shapes and templates.
• ~/.claude/skills/ — user-level skills, including an adversarial self-review skill that triggers on draft completion. Skills here are available across all projects without per-project configuration. See Skills.

Set these up before starting your first project. Doing it once now saves you re-establishing the same baseline in every new repo.

Sign in to GitHub

If this is a new Mac, configure Git identity (git config --global user.name, user.email) and authenticate. SSH key or GitHub CLI (gh auth login), whichever you prefer.

Create accounts on the services you’ll use

GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, plus any AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic API console, Perplexity, etc.). You don’t need API keys yet — those are generated project-by-project.

Install a code editor

VS Code or Cursor. Both work well alongside Claude Code. Useful extensions: ESLint, Prettier, Tailwind CSS IntelliSense, GitLens.