Claude Getting Started Guide

• Developers and software engineers who want an assistant capable of reading, debugging, and refactoring large codebases via Claude Code

• Legal, finance, and research professionals who need to analyze contracts, reports, or studies spanning hundreds of pages without losing track

• Writers, journalists, and content managers looking for a writing assistant that can adapt its tone, structure complex arguments, and respect an editorial line

Long document analysis

Drop a 200-page contract, an annual report, or an academic study into Claude: it reads the entire document thanks to its context window of up to 1 million tokens. You can then ask specific questions, request a structured summary, or identify risky clauses. Result: hours of reading condensed into a few minutes, with answers grounded in the source text.

Coding assistance with Claude Code

Claude Code integrates directly into your terminal or IDE to read your entire project, suggest fixes, write unit tests, or migrate code from one language to another. For complex tasks, Opus 4.7 takes over for in-depth analysis.

Nuanced writing and rewriting

Claude excels at producing long, coherent texts: negotiation emails, meeting summaries, in-depth articles, client reports. It adapts its tone to your instructions (formal, direct, educational) and maintains consistency across long passages.

Brainstorming and structuring ideas

Submit a vague problem or project idea: Claude asks clarifying questions, proposes multiple angles, and structures a step-by-step reflection. Useful for preparing a pitch, writing a spec sheet, or unblocking strategic thinking. Projects mode lets you preserve context between sessions.

Data processing and light automation

Claude can read CSV files, extract structured data, write Python or SQL scripts, and transform raw information into readable tables. Non-technical teams (sales, finance, HR) use it to query their data in natural language, without needing to learn to code.

• Create a free account at claude.ai — sign-up takes less than a minute with an email address or Google account.

• Start a first conversation by pasting text, a PDF file, or an open question directly into the input area — no special configuration needed.

• Use the Projects feature (in the sidebar) to create a dedicated space for a project: add your reference documents, permanent instructions (tone, context, role), and find your conversation history at every session. Projects and Artifacts are available on the free plan as of February 2026.

• Upgrade to Pro ($20/month) if you regularly hit the free plan limits — you get access to Opus 4.6 and Opus 4.7, longer sessions, and Claude Code included. Claude Code is not available on the free plan; it requires at least a Pro subscription.

• Explore Claude Code if you're a developer: install it via npm (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) and launch it in your terminal for assistance directly anchored in your repo.

Summarize a long document

Summarize this document in 5 key points, indicating for each point the page or section of origin: [paste your text here]

Analyze a contract

Read this contract and identify the 3 riskiest clauses for the service provider, explaining why each one is problematic: [paste the contract here]

Debug code

Here is a Python function that returns an error. Explain why and suggest a corrected version with comments: [paste your code here]

Write with a specific tone

Write a follow-up email to a client for an invoice unpaid for 30 days. Tone: professional but firm, without being aggressive. Length: 120 words max.

Generate structured ideas

Give me 5 different angles to cover the topic [your topic] in a B2B blog post. For each angle, specify the hook, the target audience, and the recommended format.

Usage limits reset on rolling 5-hour windows (not daily), which can catch users off guard coming from other tools with daily quotas.

Claude does not natively generate images: it can analyze visuals you submit, but to create illustrations or charts you'll need another tool like Midjourney or DALL-E.

The 1 million token context window is only available on certain models (Opus 4.6/4.7, Sonnet 4.6 via API or Max plan) — the free version is capped at 200,000 tokens.

Claude has no real-time internet access by default: its knowledge has a cutoff date, making it unreliable for current events or real-time pricing without web search enabled.

The Max plan ($100/month for 5x, $200/month for 20x) is billed in USD and remains expensive for occasional individual use — the value proposition only kicks in with intensive daily usage.

Making the most of the context window

Claude's large context window is only useful if you know how to leverage it. Rather than pasting an entire document and asking a vague question, structure your prompt in two steps: first give the document and specify what you're looking for, then ask your questions in a follow-up message. Claude keeps all the context in memory — no need to repeat everything each time.

Projects: stop re-explaining everything every session

If you use Claude regularly for the same project (a newsletter, a codebase, a recurring client), set up a dedicated Project. Drop in your reference files, your permanent instructions, and Claude reads them at every new conversation.

Choosing the right model for the task

• Haiku 4.5: perfect for quick tasks, short rewrites, or tests — responds almost instantly and uses less quota.

• Sonnet 4.6: the best speed/quality tradeoff for most professional use cases — writing, analysis, medium-complexity code.

• Opus 4.6: reserved for truly demanding tasks (multi-step reasoning, critical code review, detailed legal analysis) — slower, but catches errors the others miss.

• Opus 4.7: Anthropic's current flagship model. Designed for tasks previous models couldn't handle, including professional software engineering, complex agentic workflows, and high-stakes enterprise tasks. Introduces an xhigh effort level between high and max for finer control over the reasoning/latency tradeoff on hard problems. Same pricing as Opus 4.6 ($5/$25 per million tokens).

A practical tip: always start with Sonnet. If the response feels incomplete or too superficial, run the same question through Opus. You save quota and keep Opus for what's truly worth it.