The terminal, for people who never use it.

The terminal for beginners comes down to one window and about 15 commands. Open it with Spotlight on a Mac, Windows key + X on Windows 11, or Ctrl+Alt+T on Ubuntu. Then use pwd, ls and cd to find your project, cat, cp, mv and rm to handle files, and npm install, npm run and git status to run and check what an AI coding agent builds.

Coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI live in the terminal. They type most commands themselves, but they ask you to approve them, so you need to know what you are saying yes to. We ran every command below on a Mac, in a small test project, and pasted the real output. The Windows versions come from Microsoft’s documentation.

01How do I open the terminal on a Mac, Windows or Linux?

Every system ships with a terminal app, and you open it like any other app. Here is each vendor’s way, with the shell you land in (the program that reads your commands).

A line in the window ending in %, $ or > is the prompt: the shell is waiting for you. Type a command, press Return, and read what comes back. In this guide, a line starting with $ is something you type (without the $), and the lines under it are what the computer printed.

Three keys and one command save most of the typing. Up arrow brings back your last command. Tab completes a file or folder name. Ctrl+C stops whatever is running; in a terminal it does not copy, so on Windows Terminal copy is Ctrl+Shift+C by default. And clear wipes the screen.

02The 15 commands at a glance

These are the commands an agent uses most, and the ones it will ask you to approve. Most work in Windows PowerShell under the same name, because Microsoft built in aliases for them.

03What do pwd, ls and cd mean?

pwd prints the folder you are in, ls lists what is inside it, and cd moves you into another folder. Together they answer the question every beginner asks first: where am I, and where is my project?

$ pwd
/private/tmp/.../terminal-for-ai-agents/my-app

$ ls
README.md       package.json    server.js

$ ls -a
.               .env            .gitignore      package.json
..              .git            README.md       server.js

We shortened our test folder’s long path with .... Yours will look more like /Users/yourname/my-app. The -a in ls -a shows hidden files, whose names start with a dot. That is how you spot a .env file, where projects keep secrets such as API keys.

cd notes moves into a folder called notes, cd .. goes up one level, and cd ~ takes you to your home folder. mkdir notes makes that folder in the first place. When they work, cd and mkdir print nothing at all, and silence means success.

04Reading and changing files: cat, open, cp, mv and rm

cat prints a file to the screen, which is the quickest way to read a small file an agent just wrote:

$ cat package.json
{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "node server.js"
  }
}

open . opens the current folder in Finder, where the dot means “this folder”. On Windows it is explorer ., and on Linux xdg-open .. It printed nothing; a Finder window appeared.

cp copies, mv moves or renames, and rm deletes:

$ cp README.md README-copy.md
$ ls
README-copy.md  README.md       notes           package.json    server.js

$ mv README-copy.md notes/
$ ls notes
README-copy.md

$ rm notes/README-copy.md
$ ls notes

The last ls printed nothing because the folder is empty again.

05What does npm install mean?

npm install downloads the packages a project lists in its package.json file into a node_modules folder. npm comes with Node.js, which most JavaScript projects and several coding agents need. First, check both are installed:

$ which node npm git
/opt/homebrew/bin/node
/opt/homebrew/bin/npm
/usr/bin/git

$ node -v
v26.0.0

which shows where each program lives. If it prints nothing, or your shell says command not found, the program is not installed or your shell cannot find it. The fix for Node.js is the LTS installer from nodejs.org.

Here we add a code formatter called Prettier, the way an agent would, then run a plain npm install, which installs everything the project lists:

$ npm install --save-dev prettier
added 1 package, and audited 2 packages in 1s

1 package is looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

found 0 vulnerabilities

$ npm install
up to date, audited 2 packages in 597ms

npm run starts one of the scripts listed in package.json. This one starts a small web server, which keeps running until you press Ctrl+C:

$ npm run dev

> my-app@1.0.0 dev
> node server.js

my-app is running at http://localhost:3000

npx runs a tool from a package. It uses the project’s own copy first, and asks before downloading a package it cannot find:

$ npx prettier --check server.js
Checking formatting...
All matched files use Prettier code style!

Read that download prompt carefully. Attackers register package names that sound right, and AI tools sometimes invent names that attackers then claim, a trick called slopsquatting.

06Check what the agent changed with git status

git status lists every file that changed since your last commit, git’s word for a save point. Run it whenever an agent finishes, before you accept its work:

$ git status
On branch main
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
    modified:   package.json

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
    package-lock.json

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

“Modified” means an existing file changed, and “untracked” means a new file git has not seen before. Our git guide for AI coding covers the commands that undo them.

07How do I install and start a coding agent from the terminal?

Most coding agents install with one command and start when you type their name inside your project folder. These are the official install commands, checked on September 28, 2026 on each vendor’s install page. The last is for Cyborb, a desktop AI agent from Orbioom and our product:

# Claude Code (macOS, Linux, WSL), from Anthropic's setup docs
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

# Codex CLI (macOS, Linux), from OpenAI's docs
curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh

# Gemini CLI (needs Node.js 20 or later), from Google's GitHub
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

# Cyborb CLI (ours; macOS on Apple Silicon, Linux x64), from cyborb.ai
curl -fsSL https://cyborb.ai/install | bash

On Windows, Anthropic’s command for PowerShell is irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex, the Gemini CLI line works as it is, and OpenAI’s Codex page on GitHub lists a PowerShell command. Before you paste any install command, it is worth a minute to check the script first.

Then move into your project and start the agent by name: claude, codex, gemini or cyborb. Each one asks you to sign in the first time.

Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan or a Console account. Codex takes a ChatGPT plan or an API key. Gemini CLI works with a free Google account, limited to 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day as of September 2026. Checking the version is a good first test:

$ claude --version
2.1.276 (Claude Code)

$ codex --version
codex-cli 0.155.0

$ gemini --version
0.41.2

Your numbers will be newer. If your shell says command not found straight after an install, close the window and open a new one, so the shell rereads its list of places to look for programs.

If you would rather skip the terminal altogether, several agents come as desktop apps too. Cyborb’s desktop app, for example, has the same agent as its CLI built in, so the command line is optional there.

08What should you never paste into a terminal?

Never paste a command that a pop-up, a CAPTCHA, an ad, an email or a stranger gave you. Microsoft has tracked this trick, called ClickFix, since early 2024, and in a 2026 Mac campaign the pasted command installed a program that steals passwords, browser data and crypto wallets.

• “Fix” and “verify you are human” commands. No real website needs you to paste a command. On macOS 26.4 and later, Terminal may block such a paste and warn you about possible malware.

• sudo commands you do not understand. sudo runs a command with full control of the computer. Ubuntu’s advice is to understand what it does before you run it.

• Install commands from anywhere but the vendor’s own docs. Check the domain letter by letter.

• Secrets. Do not type API keys or passwords into commands, where they can end up in your shell’s history file, and never paste them into an agent’s chat. Our guide to keeping API keys safe shows where they belong.

09FAQ

Ready for a first project? Try building an app without coding, or read whether you should still learn to code.