Install Claude Code

Claude Code is the agent that does the actual work. Here is how to get it on your computer, from nothing, on any operating system.

On this page

DispatchSEO doesn't write your content. Your Claude Code does. This dashboard is its memory and its schedule, and the place you approve things - the researching and writing happen in Claude Code, running on your own Claude subscription.

So the setup wizard can't finish until Claude Code exists on your computer. Never installed it? Start here. About five minutes, and none of it needs you to know how to program.

First, check your Claude plan

Claude Code is not part of the free Claude plan. There is no way around this one, so check before you spend time on the rest of the page.

| Your plan | Claude Code | |---|---| | Free | Not included | | Pro | Included | | Max | Included | | Team | Included | | Enterprise | Included on current plans - older contracts have seat types that may not, so check with whoever manages your account |

On the free plan, Pro is the cheapest way in. Check or change your plan at claude.com/pricing.

Open a terminal

The terminal is a window where you type commands instead of clicking buttons. It's already on your computer - nothing to install.

On a Mac: press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.
On Windows: press the Start button, type PowerShell, and click Windows PowerShell. Take the ordinary one, not "ISE", and you don't need to run it as an administrator.
On Linux: press Ctrl + Alt + T, or find Terminal in your applications.

A window opens with some text and a blinking cursor. That's all it needs to look like. Everything below is copy, paste, press Enter.

Run the install command

Copy the line for your system, paste it into the terminal, press Enter, and wait. It prints a lot of text - that's normal.

On a Mac or on Linux:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

On Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

That's the whole install. It updates itself from here on, so this is a one-time thing.

Prefer a package manager? brew install --cask claude-code on a Mac and winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode on Windows both work, but neither auto-updates - upgrading is on you, with brew upgrade claude-code. Older guides tell you to use npm install -g; skip that. It still works, but Anthropic has deprecated it in favor of the command above.

Check that it worked

Close the terminal window completely and open a new one. This matters - the install changes a setting your old window has already read, so a still-open window will claim nothing happened.

In the new window, type:

claude --version

A version number means you're done. If you get command not found instead, the next section fixes it in one line.

Type claude and press Enter. The first run sends you to a browser to sign in to your Claude account. After that, Claude Code is ready and you can go back to the setup wizard.

When the terminal says "command not found"

On a Mac or Linux you see command not found: claude; on Windows, 'claude' is not recognized. Both mean the same harmless thing: Claude Code installed fine, your terminal just doesn't know where to look for it yet.

The installer prints the exact fix at the end of its output, so scroll up in that window if it's still open. Otherwise paste the line for your shell:

# Mac (the default shell there is zsh)
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

# Most Linux systems (bash)
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Then open a new terminal window and try claude --version again.

Two more errors look alarming and aren't:

A wall of HTML, or syntax error near unexpected token - the download served a web page instead of the install script. Usually a network blip, occasionally a country Anthropic doesn't support yet. Try again, or use the Homebrew or WinGet command above instead.
'&&' is not a valid statement separator - you pasted a Mac command into Windows PowerShell. Check which shell you're in: a PowerShell prompt starts with PS C:\, plain Command Prompt starts with C:\.

Anthropic keeps a full list of install errors and their fixes at code.claude.com/docs/en/troubleshoot-install.

Get your setup token

Two places ask you to paste a token that starts with sk-ant-oat: the hosted wizard's "Connect your Claude Code" step, and the Docker install's automatic builds. The token is how a server runs Claude Code as you, without you sitting there.

With Claude Code installed, run:

claude setup-token

It opens a browser, asks you to approve, then prints the token in the terminal. Copy the whole thing and paste it where you were asked.

Three things to know:

It's printed once and never saved to a file. Lose it and you run the command again; a fresh one works the same.
It lasts a year, then you generate a new one the same way.
It needs a paid plan, same as the rest of this page.

Install the GitHub CLI

Only self-hosted installs need this. The hosted version at dispatchseo.com does its GitHub work through the DispatchSEO GitHub App instead, so skip this section if you're on the hosted plan.

gh is GitHub's own command-line tool. Your agent uses it to open pull requests and set the secrets your automations need.

# Mac
brew install gh

# Windows
winget install --id GitHub.cli --source winget

On Windows, open a brand-new terminal window afterwards; a new tab in the same window won't find it.

On Linux, follow GitHub's install page for your distribution: github.com/cli/cli/blob/trunk/docs/install_linux.md.

Then connect it to your GitHub account:

gh auth login

Answer the prompts: GitHub.com, then HTTPS, then let it authenticate in your browser. The defaults are right at every step.

Only copy these commands from official pages

Install commands are the one thing here worth being fussy about. Copy them from this page, from code.claude.com, or from the anthropics/claude-code repository - not from a search ad, and not from a site you have never heard of. Fake install pages for popular developer tools are a real trick, and an install command is exactly the thing you do not want to take from a stranger.

Commands drift over time. If something here doesn't match Anthropic's own setup page, trust theirs and tell us so this page gets fixed.

Back to setup

Claude Code installed and signed in? Go back to the setup wizard - it saved your place, so you'll land on the step you left. The wizard walkthrough covers every screen if you want to read ahead.

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