Quickstart Publish your first site with Claude Code

Step 2 · Set up your agent

Claude Code in the app

Run Claude Code from a browser, the Claude app on your phone, or the Claude desktop app. Claude works on a fresh copy of your repo in the cloud, so you install no developer tools.

Time: 10 minApp path
On this page

Where to open it

All three show the same sessions: start on your laptop, check in from your phone.

Set it up once

  1. Sign in

    Use a Claude account on a paid plan: Pro, Max, Team or an Enterprise seat that includes Claude Code. No account yet? Create one at https://claude.ai (opens in a new tab) and upgrade to Pro. The free plan doesn't include Claude Code.

  2. Connect GitHub

    Claude asks you to connect GitHub and opens GitHub's authorization page. Approve it, and GitHub sends you back. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an admin may need to turn on GitHub access first.

  3. Install the Claude GitHub App

    Onboarding may offer it; if you skipped it, open https://github.com/apps/claude/installations/new (opens in a new tab). Choose your account. On a new account, choose All repositories and click Install. You don't have a repo of your own yet, and this way every repo you make in this guide works with Claude. Claude can read public repos without the app, but it needs the app to change your repos, public or private.

    Prefer to choose? Pick Only select repositories now, and add each repo after you make it (see "My repo isn't in the list" below).

  4. Keep the Default environment

    The environment is the setup for Claude's cloud machine. Pro and Max get one named Default automatically. On Team or Enterprise, keep what's filled in on the form and click Create & finish.

Start your first session

  1. Pick a repository

    Use the repository selector below the message box. Leave its branch selector on the default, usually main. No repo yet? Open https://claude.ai/code?repositories=fritzhand/history-of-tampa (opens in a new tab) to start with the Tampa starter selected. You'll make your own copy in Step 3.

  2. Choose a mode

    The mode menu next to the message box offers Auto (when available), Accept edits and Plan. Choose Plan to see the plan before anything changes.

  3. Ask something that changes nothing

    Type it, or dictate it with the microphone on your keyboard:

    Say this
    Explain what this repo is and how its website is built, in plain English. Don't change anything.

What happens when Claude works

  • It works on a copy. Claude clones your repo into a fresh cloud machine and works on a new branch named claude/…. When it reaches a stopping point, it pushes that branch to GitHub.
  • Each session starts fresh. Put standing rules in a CLAUDE.md file in your repo. Claude reads it at the start of every session.
  • It commits as Claude unless you say otherwise. Commit as yourself shows the rule to add.
  • It can't change your repo's settings. So you turn on GitHub Pages yourself, in Turn on GitHub Pages.

You decide when the work reaches main, the branch your live site is built from. When you're happy, say:

Say this
Commit and push to main.

Or open the diff view, the panel that shows what Claude changed, select Create PR at the top, and merge the pull request on GitHub. If your repo is a fork, check first that the pull request goes into your repo, not fritzhand/…. The main branch explains both.

What the agent runs for you

The cloud machine clones your repo and puts the session on its own branch. Then Claude commits and pushes there:

# the cloud machine, before Claude starts
git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git
git switch -c claude/task-name

# Claude
git add .
git commit -m "Describe the change"
git push -u origin claude/task-name

When you say "Commit and push to main", it moves the work onto main and pushes that instead:

git switch main
git merge claude/task-name
git push origin main

If it goes wrong

My repo isn't in the list

If you chose Only select repositories, each new repo or fork needs adding. On GitHub, click your profile picture, then Settings → Applications → Installed GitHub Apps. Click Configure next to Claude, select the repo under Repository access, and click Save. Then start a new session and pick the repo.

Claude says it can't push

Install the Claude GitHub App on that repo (see above), then ask again. Claude also can't push to a repo that isn't yours, such as the original starter. Make your own copy first, in Clone, fork or copy.

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