This page assumes nothing. If you've never opened a terminal in your life, you're exactly who it was written for. Follow the numbered steps top to bottom, copy the commands exactly, and compare your screen to the pictures. If anything looks different from what you expect, jump to troubleshooting — your problem is almost certainly one of the four listed there.
A terminal is just a window where you type instructions to your computer instead of clicking. It looks intimidating and it isn't — you will only ever paste things into it and press Enter. Mac calls its terminal Terminal. Windows calls its PowerShell. That's the whole vocabulary lesson; you're ready.
Anthropic publishes a free hands-on course, Claude Code in Action — how to steer Claude through bigger jobs, set up permissions, and trust the results. Do the steps below first (15 minutes, and you're working), then take the course this week to go deeper.
You only need one of these two blocks — Mac or Windows. The windows shown are illustrations of what your screen will look like at each step.
Hold the ⌘ command key and press the space bar. A search bar appears in the middle of your screen. Type terminal and press Enter.
A window with plain text opens. That's the terminal. It's supposed to look boring.
Select the whole line below, copy it (⌘C), click inside the terminal window, paste it (⌘V), then press Enter.
Your terminal will print some progress text for a minute. When it stops, it should look like this:
Quit Terminal completely (⌘Q), then open it again the same way as step 1. This is required — the computer only notices new programs in fresh windows.
Type this and press Enter:
Any version number = success. "command not found" = go to troubleshooting #1 below.
Press the Windows key (bottom row, looks like four squares). Type powershell and press Enter.
A blue window opens with text ending in PS C:\Users\yourname>. The "PS" at the start matters — it means you're in the right place.
Select the line below, copy it (Ctrl+C), click inside the blue window, paste it (right-click pastes in PowerShell, or Ctrl+V), press Enter.
If it says "irm is not recognized" — your window says C:\ without the PS. That's Command Prompt, not PowerShell. Close it and redo step 1.
Go to git-scm.com/downloads/win in your web browser, download the installer, run it, and click Next through every screen — the defaults are all correct.
Why: this quietly gives Claude a better set of tools for running commands. You'll never interact with it directly.
Close the blue window, then open it again exactly like step 1. Fresh windows are how the computer notices newly installed programs.
Type this and press Enter:
Any version number = success. An error = troubleshooting #1 or #2 below.
Mac: in Finder, find the Unreal project folder your lead pointed you to. Right-click it → New Terminal at Folder (near the bottom of the menu).
Windows: open the project folder in File Explorer, click once in the address bar at the top, type powershell over what's there, press Enter.
Why it matters: started here, Claude can see the project, our shared skills, and the Unreal connection. Started anywhere else, it can't.
Your web browser pops open a sign-in page. Sign in with your Lasting Light account — the one your lead gave you, not a personal one.
Use your @lastinglight work account
Continue with your work email Continue with GoogleFirst time only, Claude also asks you to approve this project's connections (the MCP servers). Say yes — they're ours, committed in the repo.
Back in the terminal, you'll see a box waiting for your message. Type like you'd text a colleague — no special language needed:
If Claude answers with a summary of our game — you're done. You are set up. Everything else on this page is connecting extra powers, and you can come back for it later.
An MCP is a plug-in connection that gives Claude new abilities — driving the Unreal editor, giving it new tools. One rule before the commands: where you add an MCP decides who gets it. Connections in the repo's .mcp.json file are shared with the whole team automatically; connections added "at user scope" are just for you — which is exactly right for anything that carries your personal API key.
The Unreal connection has two halves, and both come with the repo: an editor plugin in our Plugins/ folder (if the editor asks to enable or rebuild it on first launch, say yes), and the server entry in .mcp.json, which Claude Code picks up automatically when you start it in the project folder.
The one rule: the Unreal editor must be open for the live editor tools to work. No editor running = Claude has no hands.
With the editor open, type /mcp in your Claude session. You want to see this:
Then prove it end to end:
Hosted servers (a URL):
Local servers (a program on your machine):
Same pattern for Supabase, Netlify, Slack, Notion — check each service's docs for its URL or package, and ask in the tools channel before installing anything unofficial. For real, verified commands rather than the generic shape — Notion, Figma, Linear, Blender, and more — see the MCPs & APIs for Design section.
And inside any session, /mcp shows live status for every connection, and is where you complete sign-in for servers that use OAuth.
If you set up an MCP the whole team should have, don't post instructions in chat — add it to .mcp.json at project scope (with no secrets in it) and PR it, so everyone gets it on next pull. Anything that needs your API key gets added with -s user and never leaves your machine.
Close the terminal completely and open a new one — the installer updates your setup, but only brand-new terminal windows see it. Still failing? Re-run the install command from section 01 and read its last line carefully.
You're in the wrong window. Look at your prompt: PS C:\ means PowerShell (correct for our commands). Plain C:\ without the PS means Command Prompt — close it and open PowerShell instead (section 01, step 1).
Checklist, in order: Is the Unreal editor actually open? Is the MCP plugin enabled (in Unreal: Edit → Plugins → search for our MCP plugin → check the box → restart the editor)? Did you start claude from inside the project folder? Did you approve the project's servers when first asked? One of those four is it, in that order of likelihood.
You signed into a personal account instead of the studio one. Type /login in the session and switch to your Lasting Light account. If the studio account itself doesn't work, that's a ticket to your lead — not a you-problem.
Now: find your department page and run its first "try it" prompt — that's your real day one. Print the Cheat Sheet and pin it to your desk. This week: take the free official course, Claude Code in Action — plan mode, permissions, automation, and verifying Claude's work. It will make everything on this site click faster.