Five things you need to know before SideQuest install
If the word "Terminal" makes you nervous, this page is for you. Five skills, about three minutes to read, and you'll have everything you need to follow Claude's install instructions. No jargon, no prior experience required.
If you're on a Mac
Open Terminal
Press Cmd + Space on your keyboard. A search bar pops up in the middle of your screen. Type the word Terminal and press Enter. A small dark or white window opens with some text and a blinking cursor. That's Terminal.
Paste a command
Claude will give you a command in a code block. Click the copy button next to it (or highlight the text and press Cmd + C). Click on the Terminal window so it's focused. Press Cmd + V to paste. The text appears in Terminal.
Run the command
Press Enter. Terminal runs the command. It might print a few lines of text, ask you a question, or just sit there for a few seconds while something happens. Wait until the blinking cursor comes back, on its own new line. Then it's done.
Copy what Terminal printed
Click anywhere in the Terminal window. Press Cmd + A to select everything Terminal has shown so far, then Cmd + C to copy. Or, if you only want the last bit, click and drag your mouse over just those lines, then Cmd + C.
Paste it back into Claude
Click on the Claude Desktop chat window. Click in the message box at the bottom. Press Cmd + V. Press Enter. Claude reads what you pasted and tells you if it worked or what to fix.
If you're on Windows
Open Command Prompt (or PowerShell)
Press the Windows key on your keyboard, or click the Start button. Type cmd and press Enter. A small black window with white text opens. That's Command Prompt. (PowerShell works the same way — type powershell instead.)
Paste a command
Claude will give you a command in a code block. Click the copy button next to it (or highlight the text and press Ctrl + C). Click on the Command Prompt window so it's focused. Right-click in the window — that's how you paste in Command Prompt. The text appears.
Run the command
Press Enter. Command Prompt runs the command. Wait for the blinking cursor to return on its own new line.
Copy what Command Prompt printed
Click and drag your mouse over the lines you want to copy. Right-click your selection — that copies it. (Some Windows versions: press Ctrl + Shift + C.) The text is now in your clipboard.
Paste it back into Claude
Click on the Claude Desktop chat window. Click in the message box at the bottom. Press Ctrl + V. Press Enter. Claude reads what you pasted.
What can go wrong (and how to recover)
"I typed a command and nothing happened." Did you press Enter? Terminal only runs the command after Enter. If the cursor is on a new blank line without text, the previous command probably finished — just paste the next one.
"It says command not found." Means you pasted only part of the command, or the previous step didn't finish installing something. Paste what Terminal said back to Claude. Claude will tell you what's missing.
"It's asking me for my password." Type your computer login password. The cursor won't move and the characters won't appear as you type — that's a security feature, not a bug. Press Enter when done.
"The text scrolled off the screen." Scroll up in the Terminal window with your mouse wheel or trackpad. Select the relevant lines and copy. You don't need to capture everything, just the last 20 to 40 lines.
"I closed the Terminal window by accident." Reopen it the same way as step 1. Pick up where Claude left off. You don't lose progress.
What you'll never have to do
- Write code. Claude generates every command. You paste.
- Understand what a command does. Claude will explain if you ask.
- Edit configuration files by hand. Claude gives you a one-line command that does the editing.
- Remember syntax. Every command is in a code block you copy with one click.
- Become a Terminal expert. After install, you never open Terminal again unless you're upgrading.
The honest truth about who does what
Claude can't run commands on your computer for you. Claude Desktop doesn't have access to your operating system the way a remote-support tool does. So during install you're the one pressing the keys.
What Claude does is replace the human implementation specialist. Claude generates the exact command for your operating system, explains what it does, watches your output for errors, and tells you exactly how to fix anything that goes wrong. That's the value. You're not coding; you're typing the four or five commands Claude hands you.
Once SideQuest is installed, Claude has access to all the SideQuest tools (read your POs, match SKUs, build draft orders, submit estimates). At that point you stop touching Terminal forever. Every future PO is one conversation with Claude.