Install the software you’ll need

Two apps. Both are free to download; Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan to actually use it.

The page stands alone — every click is in the text. A short screencast of the install will pair with it when recorded.

What you need

• A Mac running macOS Ventura 13.0 or later (or Windows / Linux with the AI-led adaptation above).
• A paid Claude plan to get started. Pro ($20/month) is enough to begin. If you find yourself using AI heavily for work and start hitting limits, talk to Simon about upgrading — he can put you on an MMF plan.

Step 1 — Claude Desktop

1. Go to claude.com/download and run the installer.
2. Drag Claude to your Applications folder.
3. Launch Claude. Sign in with your Anthropic account.
4. Check which account you’re signed in to. A common slip: many people already have a free personal Claude account and also an MMF account through work. Make sure you’re signed in with your MMF email, not a personal Gmail — otherwise nothing in this course will be billed correctly and your usage limits will be much tighter. You can switch accounts from the avatar menu in the top-right.
5. You’ll see three tabs at the top: Chat, Cowork, Code. Click Code.

If Code prompts you to upgrade, you’re either signed in to the wrong account (see step 4) or that account isn’t on a paid plan yet. DM Simon if you’re stuck.

Why “Code” if you’re not coding?

The name is misleading. Code is the only tab that can read and edit files on your Mac, regardless of whether those files are code, prose, transcripts, spreadsheets, or anything else. The other tabs:

• Chat is a basic chat window. It can read files you drag in but doesn’t have ongoing access to a folder on your computer.
• Cowork runs Claude in a cloud sandbox — useful for autonomous tasks you want it to work on while your computer is off. It’s more restricted than Code in terms of accessing your local files, though, which makes Code the better fit for the work this course covers (editing notes, transcripts, project files on your Mac). You can come back to Cowork later if a specific workflow needs it.

For this course you live in Code.

Step 2 — Obsidian

1. Go to obsidian.md and download the Mac version.
2. Drag Obsidian to your Applications folder.
3. Launch it. On first run it asks you to either open an existing vault or create a new one. Create a new vault. Call it whatever you want — your name, “Notes”, “Vault”, whatever.
4. Where to put it: pick an iCloud folder. When the file picker comes up, navigate to iCloud Drive (in the sidebar) and create your vault inside there — something like iCloud Drive/Notes/. This means your vault is automatically backed up to iCloud and will sync between your Macs and iOS devices for free. If you put it in Documents or Desktop it’ll work but won’t be backed up unless you’ve explicitly turned that on.

That’s it. The vault is just a folder of .md files; you can move it later if you want to.

Step 3 — ChatGPT (recommended, not required)

ChatGPT (OpenAI’s chatbot) isn’t the main AI in this course — Claude Code is — but it’s a really useful companion for two specific reasons:

• Voice input is much better than typing for anything long. ChatGPT has fast, accurate voice-to-text dictation. Simon uses it side-by-side with Claude Code: ChatGPT for talking out ideas / dictating long messages, Claude Code for the actual file-editing work. Typing several paragraphs is slow; ramble for thirty seconds and get a clean transcript that you paste into Claude Code.
• Codex (OpenAI’s coding agent). A useful second opinion when you want a different AI to review something Claude wrote — especially research code, analyses, or anything where two-AI cross-checking is worth it.

Not everyone will need this — if you’re not doing voice-heavy work or AI-assisted coding/analysis, you can skip it for now and pick it up later. Most of us probably will, though.

Plan

• Free tier has voice mode but with daily limits — usable but you’ll hit the cap if you dictate a lot.
• ChatGPT Plus ($20 USD/month) is what Simon uses; nearly unlimited voice and Codex access. This is the right tier to start on.
• MMF organisation membership coming soon. Simon is setting up a Business plan so MMF team members get team access (same Plus features + admin controls + shared workspace). Until that’s live, use a personal Plus account — Simon will reimburse it, and the transition to the org account when it’s ready is straightforward.

Steps

1. Go to chatgpt.com, sign up (or sign in if you already have a free account), upgrade to Plus.
2. On the web app: look for the microphone icon in the message bar to dictate. On mobile: the same icon plus a separate voice-mode wave icon for full conversation mode.
3. Keep ChatGPT in a window next to Claude Code. Dictate into ChatGPT → copy the transcribed text → paste into Claude Code. (A screenshot of Simon’s actual workspace setup will land here when he gets a chance to drop one in.)

Sanity check

• Claude Desktop: click into the Code tab. Type / and pause. You should see a list of slash commands (/help, /clear, /model, …). If you do, Code is working.
• Obsidian: open your new vault. Create a note (“Test”). Type “hello”. Save. The note is now a hello.md file in your vault folder.
• ChatGPT (if you set it up): click the microphone icon in the message bar, say something, watch it transcribe.

These apps run quietly in the background; you’ll be in them most days.

What’s next

The two apps don’t know about each other yet — that’s the next short page. Head to Connect Claude to your notes folder.

If something breaks