Your Claude Code Setup Guide
You've got your CLAUDE.md. Here's what to do with it in the next 20 minutes.
Install Claude Code.
Get Claude Code
Download from claude.ai/code — or if you're comfortable with npm, run it directly from your terminal.
Authenticate
Open your terminal and run claude. It opens a browser window to log you in with your Anthropic account. One-time step.
# Browser opens → log in → session starts
You're in
Claude Code opens to an interactive session in your terminal. Navigate to your project directory first — that's where the CLAUDE.md lives.
Drop in your CLAUDE.md.
Save the file
Save your generated CLAUDE.md as CLAUDE.md in your project root — not in a subfolder, right at the top level where Claude Code opens.
CLAUDE.md ← here
src/
package.json
...
Test it
Open a new Claude Code session from that directory and type exactly this:
If Claude summarises your role, your tools, your active projects — it's reading your file correctly. If it gives a generic answer, the file isn't in the right place.
Update Active Work every Monday.
The part of your CLAUDE.md that degrades fastest is Active Work. It starts accurate and goes stale within a week. Every Monday morning, update this section with your current projects, priorities, and upcoming deadlines. It takes 5 minutes and it keeps Claude operating with live context instead of a 6-week-old snapshot of what you were doing.
Current sprint: [what shipped last week / what's next] Priorities this week: [3 things, in order] Upcoming deadlines: [list with dates] Active matters / deals / experiments: [list]
Connect your tools.
MCP connectors let Claude pull live data from the tools you already use. Connect the ones relevant to your vertical at claude.ai/settings/connectors.
One-click to connect. No code, no API keys to manage yourself.
Marketing / GTM
Apollo.io, Ahrefs, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Attio, Common Room
Legal / Compliance
Google Drive, Notion, Gmail, Google Calendar
Life Sciences
PubMed, bioRxiv, Benchling, 10x Genomics, BioRender
Finance / Investment
Aiera, Amplitude, Google Sheets, Notion, Gmail
Engineering
GitHub, Sentry, Linear, Slack, Supabase
Founder / CEO
Linear, HubSpot, Google Drive, Notion, Gmail, Fathom
Your first three things to try.
In order. Do these before anything else — they'll show you what the setup actually makes possible.
/help
See what commands are available. If you've added slash commands from your vertical toolkit, they show up here.
"What are the 5 things you could help me with most given my context?"
Claude reads your CLAUDE.md and suggests the highest-leverage starting points for your specific work. Often surprising.
Run your first real task
Pick the most annoying repeating task from your week and run it through Claude. That's the only benchmark that matters.
Most teams are running before the call ends.
Book my 20-minute setup call.
I'll review your CLAUDE.md, connect the tools for your vertical, and make sure the setup is running before we finish.
Want a setup that goes further than the template?
The bespoke Claude Code setup builds your CLAUDE.md from watching how you actually work — not how you describe it. MCP connectors wired to your real tools. Slash commands for your specific repeating workflows. 5 slots per month.