Beginners Track

If this is your first time — start here

For participants who have never used the terminal, never typed in Claude Code, or just want a gentle on-ramp. No prior experience required.

The goal is simple: type a few things, see what happens, build confidence.

Before You Start

If you’re on Nuvolos, everything is ready. Just open a terminal and type claude.

If you installed locally, open Terminal (macOS) or your WSL terminal (Windows), cd into the workshop folder, and type claude. If you use RStudio, click the Terminal tab next to Console — that works too.

The workshop folder comes pre-loaded with trade_sample.csv (bilateral trade flows: exporter, importer, product, value, year — about 500 rows of toy data) and a papers/ folder with 3 PDFs.

TipSomething not working?

Raise your hand. Julian, Paula, or a helper will come over. Nobody gets stuck alone today.

Step 1 — First Contact

Type this exactly:

What files are in this folder? Summarize the data.

What should happen: Claude will list the files, open each one, and explain what’s inside in plain English.

NoteThat’s it. You just used an AI coding agent.

You typed a sentence, it read your files, it told you about them. That’s the entire loop.

Step 2 — Make a Chart

Make a simple bar chart of the top 10 rows in trade_sample.csv by value. Save it to output/.

What should happen: Claude writes a short R script, runs it, and saves a PNG file.

Look at the output. Did it work? If the chart looks weird, that’s normal — the next step is fixing it.

Step 3 — Fix Something

Pick one thing you don’t like about the chart. Maybe the colors, or the sort order, or the labels. Tell Claude:

The chart has [problem]. Fix it.

For example:

  • “Make the bars horizontal and sort them from largest to smallest.”
  • “Use dark blue for the bars and add value labels.”
  • “The title is too long — shorten it to two words.”

What should happen: Claude updates the script, reruns it, and saves a new version.

Step 4 — Ask a Question

This time, try a question instead of a command:

Which country trades the most with Germany in this dataset? Show me the top 5.

What should happen: Claude filters and aggregates the data, then answers.

Step 5 — Read a Paper

Try something that has nothing to do with data:

Read the first PDF in the papers/ folder. Summarize it in 3 bullets: main question, method, finding.

What should happen: Claude reads the PDF and gives you a short summary.

TipYou now know enough to be useful

Reading files, making charts, asking questions, reading papers. That covers 80% of how you’d use this in your actual work.

If You Finish Early

Try one of these:

  1. Move on to the Advanced Track — if you’re comfortable, keep going.
  2. Ask Claude to explain its code — “Walk me through what that script does, line by line.”
  3. Try a follow-up — “Now do the same for France instead of Germany.”
  4. Break something on purpose — Give Claude a contradictory instruction and see what it does.

Troubleshooting

“Command not found: claude” → You’re not in the right folder, or Claude Code isn’t installed. Ask a helper.

Claude asks for permission to do something → Read the request. If it’s reading or writing files in your project folder, say yes. If it wants to install something or delete something, ask a helper.

Output is wrong or ugly → Just tell Claude what to fix. You don’t need to know how.

Claude looks stuck → Press Escape. You can always interrupt and try again.

See also: Terminal basics · Writing a CLAUDE.md