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2. Setup - Claude Code

Note: The video covers material not in the guide below — please watch in full.

Action Step

Complete this before moving on.

Pause the video and follow along step by step — this is a checklist, not a lecture. Complete every step below. When you're done, type /model in Claude Code and confirm you're on Opus. If something looks different on your screen, do your best to figure it out first. If you get stuck, post in your Academy Slack channel and tag your Team Leader.

Comment in Slack

Post your answer in your onboarding channel.

What was your biggest takeaway(s) from this training?

Training Guide

This training is not just a lesson. It's a checklist. Pause the video as you go, follow each step, and don't worry about understanding everything yet — we'll explain it all in the trainings that follow.

If something doesn't work or looks different on your screen, do your best to figure it out. If you run into any issues - be sure to post in your Academy Slack channel & tag your Team Leader.

1. VS Code​

What to do:

  1. Go to code.visualstudio.com/download
  2. Download the version for your computer (Mac or Windows)
  3. Mac users: Drag VS Code from your Downloads folder into Applications before opening it

What you'll see: A blank editor with a sidebar on the left. If it shows a "Welcome" walkthrough, click "Don't show again" and skip it.

VS Code is where everything lives — your files, your AI agent, your workspace. Think of it as your new home base. We'll get into why later.

(Next: let's get the AI set up)

2. Claude Account + Pro Plan​

What to do:

  1. Go to claude.ai
  2. Sign up with your LeanScale email address
  3. Once you're in, go to Settings → Billing → Adjust Plan
  4. If doing this manually yourself: Select Pro ($20/month) — make sure you click Monthly (if already set up for you - you may already be on the Max plan $100/mo)
  5. Use the company card from LastPass (card ending in 3598) to pay

International team (Brazil): Before entering payment, change your region from Brazil to United States — otherwise the charge will be in Reais. Enter the card information (not your personal name) on the form. Choose "Use a different name on invoices" so each charge is easy to identify.

Checking your plan later: You can always go back to Settings → Billing to see your current plan, usage, and upgrade options. You won't need to do this now, but know it's there.

(Now let's connect Claude to VS Code)

3. Claude Code Extension​

What to do:

  1. Open VS Code

  2. Click the Extensions icon in the left sidebar (looks like four squares / puzzle pieces)

  3. Search "Claude Code"

  4. Install the one from Anthropic (the official extension)

  5. Once installed, you'll see an orange icon — click it

  6. Click "Claude AI Subscription" and authorize when prompted

    • If the page doesn't open automatically, copy the link it gives you, paste it in your browser, and click Authorize
    • Copy the code it gives you back into VS Code

What you'll see: A chat panel inside VS Code. That's your AI agent. It can see your files, create documents, and do work — but we'll get into all that later.

(One more tool to download, then we set up your workspace)

4. WisprFlow​

What to do:

  1. Go to wispr.com and download WisprFlow
  2. Sign in with your LeanScale Google account
  3. Complete the full personalization workflow — it'll ask how you write personal messages, work messages, emails, etc. Go all the way through it.

The shortcut: FN + Space activates voice dictation. We'll cover WisprFlow properly in the next training — for now, just get it installed.

(Now let's set up your files)

5. GitHub — Account, Your Repo & Team Repos​

This section has a few parts. Take it step by step.

Create your folder structure​

  1. Open Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows)
  2. Go to Documents
  3. Create a new folder called GitHub

Accept the GitHub invite​

  1. Check your LeanScale email for a GitHub invite
  2. Click "Join LeanScale Team"
  3. Sign in with Google using your LeanScale account
  4. Create your username (your name is fine — e.g., "eduardo-leanscale")
  5. Do not click "Go GitHub Copilot" — click Join LeanScale Team

Download GitHub Desktop​

  1. Go to desktop.github.com and download it
  2. Mac users: Drag it to Applications
  3. Open GitHub Desktop → Settings → Sign in to GitHub → Continue with browser
  4. Authorize when prompted

Create your personal repo on GitHub​

  1. Go to github.com and sign in
  2. Click the + icon in the top-right corner → New repository
  3. Name it YourName-Repo (e.g., "Eduardo-Repo", "Sarah-Repo")
  4. Make sure it's set to Private
  5. Click Create repository

This repo lives in your personal GitHub account — not in the LeanScale organization. It's your workspace. We'll explain the difference between your repo and the team repos in a later training.

Clone your personal repo​

In GitHub Desktop:

  1. Click Add → Clone Repository
  2. Search for your YourName-Repo — it should show up under your account
  3. For the local path, choose Documents/GitHub/
  4. Click Clone

You now have a folder on your computer at Documents/GitHub/YourName-Repo that's connected to GitHub. Anything you put in this folder can be synced to the cloud later.

Clone the team repos​

Still in GitHub Desktop:

  1. Click Add → Clone Repository

  2. Search for and clone each of these (one at a time):

    • LeanScale Context
    • Customer Warehouse
    • Teamwork
    • Skills and SOPs
    • Playbooks-Library
    • Academy-courses

  3. Make sure each one saves to Documents/GitHub/

(Almost there — let's get everything loaded into VS Code)

6. VS Code Workspace​

What to do:

  1. Open VS Code

  2. Press Command + B (Mac) to open the sidebar if it's closed

  3. Click Open Folder → navigate to Documents/GitHub/YourName-Repo → Open

  4. Right-click in the sidebar → Add Folder to Workspace

  5. Add all the repos you just cloned: GTM Library, LeanScale Context, Customer Warehouse, Teamwork, Skills and SOPs

    • Hold Command (Mac) to select multiple at once

What you'll see: All your repos listed in the left sidebar. Click the little collapse arrow to keep it clean. This sidebar is your workspace — think of it like Google Drive, but for your AI agent.

(Now let's configure a few settings)

7. Change the Model to Opus​

What to do:

  1. In VS Code, click the orange Claude icon (or press Command + N and then click the icon)
  2. In the chat, type /model
  3. Select Claude Opus 4.6 (Note: be sure to reference the guide under this video, because this gets updated regularly)
  4. Open a new Claude tab and type /model again to confirm it saved

Currently: We use Opus because it's the most powerful model — better reasoning, better writing, better at complex tasks. Your default will probably say Sonnet. Change it to Opus. But note: this changes every month!

8. Enable Bypass Permissions Mode​

What to do:

  1. Press Command + , to open VS Code Settings
  2. Search "Claude permissions"
  3. Turn on "Allow dangerously skip permissions"
  4. While you're there, set "Initial permission mode" to Bypass permission mode
  5. Quit VS Code completely (Command + Q) and reopen it for the setting to take effect

What this does: Bypass mode lets the AI work without asking permission for every single action. This is what you want for knowledge work — creating documents, doing research, organizing files. We'll explain all the permission modes in a later training.

If you're in engineering: Do not enable this by default. You'll be connected to live systems where an unchecked AI could cause damage. This is for knowledge workers only.

9. MarkSharp Extension​

What to do:

  1. Go to Extensions in VS Code (same place you installed Claude Code)
  2. Search "MarkSharp"
  3. Install it
  4. Right-click any .md file in your sidebar → Open With → Configure Default Editor for .md → Select MarkSharp

What this does: Makes Markdown files look like real documents instead of raw code. You'll be working with Markdown files constantly — this makes them readable.

10. Telemetry / Leaderboard​

What to do:

  1. In your VS Code sidebar, find the LeanScale Context folder
  2. Open Claude-Telemetry
  3. Right-click on install.sh → Copy Path
  4. Open Claude Code (the orange icon) and make sure you're in bypass permissions mode
  5. Paste the path and tell it: "Install this for me — give me the terminal command with the install file in the command"
  6. Run the command it gives you in the terminal (it may ask for your computer password — type it even though nothing shows up on screen)
  7. Command + Q both the terminal and VS Code, then reopen VS Code
  8. Link to the leaderboard: https://leanscale.grafana.net/public-dashboards/8ce49a04baed43e590cb8ffb1001aede

This sets up usage tracking so you show up on the team leaderboard. There's no easy way to verify on your end — run a few commands in Claude Code to generate some usage, then message Yasin to confirm you're showing up.

(That's everything — let's make sure it all worked)

Checkpoint — What You Should Have Now​

Open VS Code and verify:

  • VS Code is installed and open
  • Claude Code extension is installed — you see the orange icon
  • Claude is set to Opus 4.5 (type /model to check)
  • Bypass permissions mode is on
  • WisprFlow is installed and personalized
  • Your repos are in the left sidebar: YourName-Repo (cloned from your GitHub account), LeanScale Context, Customer Warehouse, Teamwork, Skills and SOPs
  • MarkSharp is installed — .md files render as clean documents
  • Telemetry is set up

If something's off, reach out. Don't spend time debugging alone — we'll get you sorted.

(You're set up — next training: we're going to talk about WisprFlow, the tool that lets you talk to your AI instead of typing)