🍎 macOS — Install Homebrew (the one thing you do by hand)

Homebrew is a tool that installs other tools. It's the only thing the AI can't install for you, because it's what everything else gets installed with. It takes about 10 minutes, most of which is waiting.

Step 1 — Open Terminal.

Press Cmd (⌘) + Space to open Spotlight search. Type Terminal and press Return. A small window with text will open. This is the "terminal" — you type commands here and press Return to run them.

Step 2 — Copy this line, paste it into the Terminal window, and press Return:

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

To paste, click in the Terminal window and press Cmd (⌘) + V.

Step 3 — Type your Mac password when it asks.

It will say something like "Password:". Type your normal Mac login password and press Return.

⚠️ The screen will NOT show anything as you type — no dots, no stars. That's normal and intentional. Just type it and press Return.

Step 4 — Press Return again if it asks you to.

It may say "Press RETURN to continue". Do that. Then wait — it will print lots of text for several minutes. Let it finish until you see your cursor sitting on a fresh empty line again.

Step 5 — Finish the setup (important — don't skip).

When it's done, it usually prints a short "Next steps" section near the bottom with two lines that start with echo. Copy those two lines (and one starting with eval if shown), paste them in, and press Return. If you don't see them, paste these three lines one at a time instead:

echo >> ~/.zprofile

echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

(This step is what makes the brew command actually work afterward. Skipping it is the #1 thing people get stuck on.)

Step 6 — Check it worked.

Type this and press Return:

brew --version

If you see something like Homebrew 5.x.x, you're done. ✅ Leave this Terminal window open and go back to Claude.

🪟 Windows — Check your tool installer is ready (the one thing you do by hand)

Windows already comes with a tool that installs other tools — it's called winget, and it's what the AI will use to install everything else. On most Windows 10 and 11 machines it's already there, so you just need to open the terminal and confirm it works. This takes about 2 minutes.

Step 1 — Open the terminal (PowerShell).

Press the Windows key, type PowerShell, and click Windows PowerShell (on Windows 11 it may be called Terminal — either is fine). A window with text will open. This is the "terminal" — you type commands here and press Enter to run them.

Step 2 — Copy this line, paste it into the window, and press Enter:

winget --version

To paste, click in the window and press Ctrl + V, then press Enter.

Step 3 — Check what you see.

If you see something like v1.x.x, winget is ready. ✅ Skip to Step 5.

If it says "winget is not recognized…", go to Step 4.

Step 4 — Only if winget was missing: install it from the Store.

Open the Microsoft Store (press Windows, type Store, open it), search for App Installer, and click Get / Update. ("App Installer" is what provides winget.) When it finishes, close PowerShell, open it again (Step 1), and re-run winget --version. You should now see a version number.

Step 5 — You're done. ✅ Leave this PowerShell window open and go back to Claude.

💡 If your Windows is too old to have winget at all (older Windows 10), tell Claude — it can guide you through installing Chocolatey instead, which is the closer cousin to Homebrew but needs a couple extra steps.