The terminal without fear: the commands you'll actually use

The terminal is just a way to type commands to your computer instead of clicking. It’s scary at first, but 6 commands are plenty to get around. Pick your system above and tap each step.

1 Open the terminal

Press the Windows key, type PowerShell and open it. (“Command Prompt” also works.)

Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal and open it.

Easiest: open it inside VS Code with Terminal → New Terminal. That way you’re always in your project’s folder.

2 See where you are and what's there

Type the command, press Enter.

See the current folder: cdpwd
List the files in that folder: ls

3 Move between folders

Enter a folder: cd folder-name
Go up one level (to the parent folder): cd ..

Tip: type cd and drag a folder onto the terminal, it pastes the path for you.

4 Create folders and files

Create a folder: mkdir my-project
Create an empty file: ni file.txttouch file.txt

Your lifesavers (memorize these)

Shortcut	What it does
↑ arrow	Repeat the last command (don’t retype it)
Tab	Auto-complete file/folder names
Ctrl + C	Cancel what’s running
`clear`	Clear the screen

Golden rule

You don’t have to memorize everything. When a tutorial (or Claude) says “run this”, copy and paste the command and press Enter. With cd, ls and the arrow keys you’re already good.