Run Claude Code in VS Code without being a developer

I'm not a developer. I run a one-person studio, and most of my week now runs through Claude Code: drafting posts, fixing my website, building the small tools that keep client work moving. I do almost all of it inside VS Code, a free code editor that turns out to be a very good place to work with an AI, even if you never write code yourself.

This guide is the setup I wish someone had handed me on day one.

What you're actually installing

Two things, and it helps to know which is which.

• VS Code is the workspace. Think of it as a window onto a folder on your computer: the files are on the left, whatever you have open is in the middle.
• Claude Code is the assistant that lives inside it. Unlike a chat window in your browser, it can open the files in that folder, change them, and run commands, with your permission.

That difference is why I use it. A browser chat can tell you how to fix something. Claude Code can go and fix it, and show you exactly what it changed.

Step 1: Install both

1. Download VS Code from code.visualstudio.com and install it like any other app.
2. Open it, click the Extensions icon on the left (four little squares), search for Claude Code, and install the one published by Anthropic.
3. A Claude icon appears in the sidebar. Click it and sign in with your Claude account.

You'll need a paid Claude plan to use it. Start with the cheapest one and only move up if you keep hitting the limit.

Step 2: Open the right folder

This step matters most, and it's the one I got wrong.

Claude Code works on whatever folder you open. Go to File, then Open Folder, and pick the folder for the thing you're working on: your website, your client files, one project.

Pick the project folder itself, not the one above it. If you keep instructions for the AI in a file inside a project (more on that in the next guide), opening a folder higher up means those instructions might not get read at the start. Claude then works without your rules and you can't see why it's behaving differently.

A good habit: one folder per business area, and always open that exact folder.

Step 3: Ask for something small

Open the Claude panel and type a plain request. Good first ones:

• "Look through this folder and tell me what's in it, in plain English."
• "Find every file that mentions my old phone number."
• "Read my About page and suggest a shorter version. Don't change anything yet."

Before Claude edits a file or runs a command, it asks you. Read what it wants to do and say yes or no. You can loosen this later, once you trust it on a kind of task. Start strict.

Step 4: Run more than one session (carefully)

Once it clicks, you'll want several going at once: one drafting content, one fixing the site, one sorting files. You can.

The sidebar shows one chat at a time, so to see several side by side:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on a Mac) and choose Terminal: Create New Terminal in Editor Area.
2. Type claude and press Enter. That's a second, separate session.
3. Drag its tab to the edge of the window to split the screen. Repeat for more.

Two things caught me out.

Each session has its own memory. A second session in the same window knows nothing about what the first one was told. Treat them like two different freelancers, not one person with two screens.

They also all share the same files, and that's where it goes wrong. If two sessions work in the same folder on related things, one can overwrite or ship the other's half-finished work. I once found two of mine had spent most of a day editing the same video separately, each with no idea the other existed.

So give each session its own job, ideally in its own folder. And if one is about to publish or deploy something, make sure nothing else is mid-edit in that folder.

Step 5: Name your chats

When you have five sessions open, "Claude Code" on every tab tells you nothing. Rename each tab to say what it's doing: "Website · contact form", "Newsletter · October". It takes ten seconds and it's how you avoid the double-work problem above.

What to do next

You now have an AI that can actually work in your files. The next step is giving it the context it needs so you stop repeating yourself:

• Set up your folders so it can find things on its own.
• Write one instruction file it reads every time it starts.
• Give it a memory that lasts between chats.

Those are the next three guides. If you'd rather have it set up for you, that's what I do. Ask me for the free audit and I'll look at how you work and point out where AI would save you the most time.