Check your computer

Learning objective

By the end of this lesson, you will know whether your computer can run the agent app for either of this course's two tracks — without opening a settings menu.

Why this matters

Before you decide how you're paying or which account to create, settle a smaller question: will the app you're about to install open on the computer you're using right now? You don't need a spec sheet. If your browser runs comfortably today, you're most of the way to an answer.

Core read

What your computer needs

Whichever track you pick in the next lesson, you install exactly one program: an AI coding agent (a program that reads your project files, plans changes, and writes code on your behalf — guided by a conversation with you, → GLOSSARY). It's a normal desktop app, the kind you already download and open.

Claude Code desktop (the paid-track agent app, opening in its own window on your computer, → GLOSSARY) installs on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Codex (the coding agent inside the free-track ChatGPT desktop app, → GLOSSARY) installs on Windows, Mac, or Linux too.

Neither app publishes a minimum processor or memory size. The practical bar: if your computer runs a modern browser comfortably — several tabs open, maybe a video call, without freezing — it clears the bar for either app. A computer from roughly the last five years, kept updated, is normally enough.

Nothing else needs to be there already

This course assumes a fresh computer: no developer tools, nothing set up. When a later step needs something extra, you ask your agent to check what's missing and help you install it — you approve, you never type commands. Lesson 6 gives you the sentence for that.

One exception: Claude Code desktop needs one helper program before it can open a folder on your computer. Windows computers don't have it; most Macs already do. It's a normal download-and-run installer — Lesson 5 names it and says what to do if the app says a program is missing.

Your three surfaces

This course happens in three places: the agent app's window (where you talk to your agent and approve what it does), your browser (where you look at your own project running, and later click through a dashboard or two), and your phone (much later). Nothing else to open. When a later module needs something extra on your machine, your agent proposes it and you approve or decline.

Exercise

A 5-minute check, not an install. Answer out loud or on paper:

1. Does your browser run comfortably right now — several tabs open, without the fan spinning up or things freezing? (If yes, your computer clears the bar for either track.)
2. Are you on Windows or a Mac? (Either works for both tracks. Windows plus Claude Code desktop means one extra download-and-run install in Lesson 5. A Mac usually needs none, and Lesson 5 says what to do if yours does.)

Those two answers are the whole check.

Checkpoint

You've got this if you can:

• Say, in one sentence, whether your computer can run Claude Code desktop, Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app, or both. (For almost everyone, the honest answer is "both.")
• Say what's different if you're on Windows and pick Claude Code desktop (one extra install, in Lesson 5) — and that anything else your project needs gets installed with your agent's help, when it's needed.
• Name the three places this course happens: the agent app, your browser, your phone.

What you just did

You checked whether your computer can run the agent app, using a browser-comfort test instead of a spec sheet. Next: the same honest check, but for cost. Lesson 3 walks through what each track charges you, before you create a single account.