3 Ways to Use Claude Code If You Have Never Touched a Terminal
VS Code, the terminal, and your phone. Pick the one that fits how you work.
Most people hear “Claude Code” and picture a developer hunched over a dark screen typing commands.
I run my AI consulting business in Columbus with it. Proposals, client files, websites, emails, social media, my knowledge base. My background is as a soldier, and then a gym owner...I am not a developer. Yet, Claude Code is the most useful business tool I have touched in 20 years.
The first question I get from small business owners is the same one: “I’ve used [insert generic search AI] where do I type?”
I use three different ways and I have used all three this week for different reasons. I will walk through each one and tell you which to start with.
1. VS Code — The One I Recommend
VS Code is a free program from Microsoft. It looks like a text editor with a file browser on the left side. Developers use it to write software. I use it to run my business.
Claude creates a file for me, a proposal or a content calendar, and I can see it in the sidebar the second it saves. I click it and it opens. Claude mentions a file path in conversation, I click the link and I am looking at it. Claude suggests a terminal command, I copy it and paste it into the built-in terminal without leaving the window.
My setup: the main panel is my chat with Claude. Underneath it, taking up about a quarter of the screen, I keep a terminal open. The chat is where I talk. The terminal is where I paste commands.
Download VS Code. Sign in to your Claude account. Click the Claude icon at the top of the window. Five minutes and you are talking to Claude with your full file system available to it.
I have built entire client deliverable packages in this window. Proposals, timelines, templates, content calendars. If you try one of these three, make it this one.
2. The Terminal — More Power, Less Polish
Install Claude Code (one command), open your terminal, type claude, and start talking. A blinking cursor and a conversation.
I use the terminal when I need Claude to do something technical. Install a program. Connect to an email account through Zapier. Set up an API key. The terminal gives Claude the deepest access to your system, which makes it the right choice when you are wiring services together.
The key habit: point Claude at the right folder before you start. If your business files live in a specific directory, navigate there first, then type claude. Now it can see your files, read them, edit them, and create new ones right where they belong.
You want to connect Claude to your email, your calendar, your CRM, or your social media accounts? The terminal is where you do that. It is also where you install new skills and plugins that expand what Claude can do.
The trade-off: no visual file browser, no clickable links. You are working in plain text. For me that is fine because I know where my files live. For someone starting fresh, it can feel like navigating without a map. Start with VS Code, then come to the terminal once you know your way around.
I can open a terminal, type claude, and be working in three seconds.
3. Claude on Your Phone — Remote Control
This one came out earlier this year. If you spend most of your day away from a desk, pay attention.
Claude has a feature called Remote Control. You start a Claude Code session on your computer at home or at the office, then pick up your iPhone, open the Claude app, and connect to that same session. Your phone becomes a window into your machine.
Your files stay on your computer. Your email connections, your CRM, your calendar, all running locally. You talk to Claude from your phone and it executes on your machine as if you were sitting in front of it.
I use this at the gym, around client meetings or coffee or on the golf course. A client asks a question, I can pull out my phone, ask Claude to find the proposal we drafted last week, and read it right there. I ask it to draft a follow-up email and send it through the Zapier connection we already set up. The work runs on my machine, miles away sitting at my home office.
Setup takes two minutes. Start a Remote Control session from your terminal. Claude gives you a code. Open the Claude app on your phone, enter the code, and the two are linked. What you type on your phone runs on your computer.
All traffic is encrypted. Your files never leave your machine. Only the conversation and tool results travel between your phone and your computer.
The contractor on a job site, the fitness studio owner between classes, the realtor between showings. If you are rarely at a desk, this is how you keep your AI system running while you are out doing the work.
Where to Start
VS Code. You can see your files, click through them, chat with Claude, and run commands in one window. Free. Five minutes to set up.
Once you know your way around, add the terminal for the wiring work. Connecting services, installing plugins, configuring your system.
Then set up Remote Control on your phone so your business system follows you out the door.
I use all three on a given day. VS Code is home base. The terminal is the workshop. My phone is the remote. Two years ago this setup would have required a full-time assistant and three software subscriptions.
If you are a small business owner in Columbus and want help setting any of this up, that is what I do. Reach out at cbusaiagents.com or reply to this post.
If you missed last week’s post on what AI agents are and how they differ from AI search, start there: From Google to Grok to AI Agents.
Jeff Binek is the founder of Cbus AI Agents, an AI consulting firm in Dublin, Ohio. He builds AI agent systems for small businesses across Columbus and Central Ohio.