Agents at Work / The tool stack / The terminal
07 · Type · Reference
Nine commands. That's it.
The terminal is a plain text box. You type a short line, press Enter, and your computer does it. Claude Code and Codex live there, and a few setup steps happen there. It looks scary and it isn't. Here is every command you will meet, with the plain-words version of each.
What you get
- The nine commands you will actually type, and what each one does.
- The plain-words version of each, so none of them is a mystery.
- Four tips that save you a stuck afternoon.
How it fits in your agent.
What it is
A text box for commands. On a Mac it's called Terminal. On Windows, PowerShell.
What it does for your agent
It is where Claude Code runs, and where you push, pull, and start a test.
When you touch it
The setup prompt tells you each command when it's time. Maybe ten in the whole accelerator.
The commands.
| You type | What it does | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
cd scout | Go into the folder called scout. | Open this folder. |
ls (Mac) · dir (Windows) | List what is in the folder you're in. | What's in here? |
mkdir scout | Make a new folder called scout. | New folder. |
npm install | Download the parts a project needs to run. | Get the parts. |
npx eve dev | Run your agent on your own computer, to test it. | Start it up, just for me. |
git status | Show which files you changed since the last save. | What did I change? |
git pull | Download the latest copy of your folder from GitHub. | Download. |
git push | Upload your saved changes to GitHub. | Upload. |
Ctrl + C | Stop whatever is running right now. | Stop. |
- The up arrow brings back the last command you typed.
- Tab finishes a folder name for you. Type the first letters, press Tab.
- If it looks stuck, it is probably still working. Give it a minute before you press Ctrl + C.
- You will type maybe ten commands in the whole accelerator. The setup prompt tells you each one when it's time.
push is upload. pull is download. that's most of git.
The one idea.
Push is upload. Pull is download. Almost everything else is a folder command you already know from clicking around.
Words to know.
- Terminal
- The text box where you type a command and the computer does it. Claude Code lives here.
- Push
- Upload your saved changes to GitHub.
- Pull
- Download the latest copy from GitHub.
- Folder
- Your agent. Every piece is one file in this folder. Nothing more.