Pathlight·Playbook

Your First Hour

Already know you want one place showing what is in progress, waiting for you, and next? Use the Command Center Quickstart to generate your first setup, then come back here if Claude Code is not installed yet.

Before you learn how any of this works, you are going to feel it work. In the next hour you will set up the one tool this guide runs on, tell it who you are once, and watch a fresh session already know your business without being told. That feeling is the whole system in miniature. Everything after this chapter just makes it deeper.

What you need: a computer, an Anthropic account, and about an hour. No coding. If you can follow a recipe, you can do this.

First, which Claude?

This trips up almost everyone, so we will clear it up before you start. There are a few different Claudes, and they are not the same brain:

Claude What it is Can it work with your files?
Claude app (the website or phone app) A chat window. Great for thinking and drafting. No. It can write you a draft, but it cannot save it, organize it, or remember it next time.
Claude Code (what this guide uses) Claude that can actually do things on your computer: read and write your files, run your setup, remember across sessions. Yes. This is the one that runs your whole system.
The API For people building software. Ignore it for now.

Here is the difference that matters: the chat app can write you a great voice.md, but it cannot save that file, link it to your other files, and read it back tomorrow. Your system needs the version that can. That is Claude Code, and it is what every step below assumes.

Claude Code runs in a few places: a code editor like VS Code (friendliest if you are new), the desktop app, or the terminal (the black text window). Pick whichever looks least scary. They are the same Claude underneath.

The four steps

1. Install Claude Code

Follow the official install guide for Claude Code. When it finishes, open it in any folder and type:

read the files in this folder and tell me what's here

You should see something like:

This folder has 3 files: a README, a notes file, and an image.
Want me to summarize any of them?

If it read your files back to you, Claude Code is working. That is the whole test.

A note that saves a lot of worry: Claude Code asks permission before it changes anything. When it wants to edit or create a file, you get a yes/no prompt. Nothing happens that you did not approve, and nothing here can break your computer. You are always in control.

2. Make one home for everything

Create a single folder that will hold your whole business. Ask Claude Code:

make a folder called hub in my home directory

That folder, ~/hub, is where everything lives from now on. One place. You will organize it properly later; for now it just needs to exist.

3. Tell Claude who you are, once

This is the step that makes the magic happen. You are going to write one short file that Claude reads automatically at the start of every session, forever. Ask Claude Code:

create a file at ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and put this in it, then show it back to me

Then paste in something like this, edited to be you:

## Who I am
I'm [name], founder of [business]. We [what you do] for [who you serve].

## How I like to work
- Talk to me plainly. I'm not a coder.
- When you're not sure, ask before doing something big.
- Never send anything or spend money without checking with me first.

Ten lines is plenty. You are not writing a manual. You are briefing a sharp new assistant on their first morning.

4. Feel it work

Now the test. Close Claude Code completely, then open a brand new session and ask:

what do you know about me?

You should see something like:

You're [name], founder of [business]. You serve [who].
You prefer plain language, you're not a coder, and you want me
to check with you before anything big or anything that costs money.

It never met this session. You never re-explained yourself. It just knew. That is the entire idea behind everything else in this guide: your business written down once, in a form Claude reads every time, so you never start from scratch again.

You’ve got it when

If all four are true, you have your first win. Most people never get this far. You did it in an hour.

What just happened, and what’s next

You did not build anything complicated. You gave Claude a memory and a home. But that small move is the seed of the entire system: a business that Claude always understands, so both you and it always know where things stand.

Next you will make it sound like you, not like a generic robot, so it can draft in your own voice.

→ Next: Win 2 - It sounds like you (01-memory/01-the-codex.md, the voice.md section)

Want the fuller setup (a proper folder layout, version history, the whole toolchain)? That is 00-prerequisites.md. You do not need it to keep going, but it is there when you want to do this right.