Installation Guide

July 27, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

pnpm add -g start-claude

From Source

git clone https://github.com/your-username/start-claude.git
cd start-claude
pnpm install
pnpm run build
npm link

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 24+
  • pnpm (for installation and Claude Code CLI)

Auto-Installation Feature

If Claude Code CLI is not installed, start-claude will:

  1. Detect that Claude Code is missing
  2. Ask: "Claude Code CLI is not installed. Would you like to install it automatically?"
  3. Install via pnpm add -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
  4. Automatically start Claude with your configuration

No more manual installation steps!

Verification

After installation, verify that start-claude is working:

start-claude --help

# Note: The short alias 'sc' may not work on Windows
# Use override feature for Windows compatibility:
start-claude override --enable

Windows Users - Important

The sc command may conflict with Windows system commands. For the best Windows experience:

# Enable override feature (Recommended)
start-claude override --enable

# Alternative: Use full command name
start-claude --api-key sk-your-key

# Create custom alias (PowerShell)
Set-Alias scc start-claude

Troubleshooting

Permission Issues on Linux/macOS

If you encounter permission errors during global installation:

# Using pnpm with sudo (not recommended)
sudo pnpm add -g start-claude

# Better: Configure pnpm to use a different directory
mkdir ~/.pnpm-global
pnpm config set global-dir '~/.pnpm-global'
echo 'export PATH=~/.pnpm-global/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
pnpm add -g start-claude

Windows Path Issues

If the command is not recognized after installation:

  1. Restart your terminal/command prompt
  2. Verify pnpm global directory is in your PATH
  3. Run pnpm config get global-dir to see the global directory
  4. Add that directory to your Windows PATH if necessary

Update to Latest Version

pnpm update -g start-claude

Uninstallation

pnpm remove -g start-claude