Charlie Hills
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Free guide · Claude & Claude Code

The Claude Setup Checklist (5 things to do first)

The 5 things to set up in Claude first, including a full fill-in Instructions template that captures your voice and rules. Desktop app, Instructions, connectors, model switching and Projects.

Charlie Hills Added 28 July 2026 · Free

What’s inside

  1. 11. Get the desktop app
  2. 22. Fill out your Instructions (this is the big one)
  3. 33. Connect your tools
  4. 44. Learn to switch models (and the effort dial)
  5. 55. Create one Project
🧱 Set these 5 up before anything else. How you set Claude up matters more than any prompt or skill. Do them once and it stops acting like ChatGPT from 2022.

1. Get the desktop app

Download it at https://claude.com/download and work there, not in the browser. The app reaches the files and documents on your computer, so Claude works with your real stuff, and you can dictate to it instead of typing. Pin it to your dock or taskbar so it is always one click away.

That’s the first part. The rest of this guide is free too.

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