How to Build an App With Claude Code - Full Tutorial for Beginners, by Tech With Tim on YouTube. 24 min 4 s.
- Video length
- 24 min 4 s
- Time to do it
- 2 hours
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Install Claude Code by following the official Anthropic setup instructions for your operating system. Open a terminal and confirm the install by running the claude command.
Download and install Cursor from its website. Sign in and open a new empty project folder where your app files will live.
Get familiar with Cursor: open the file explorer, the editor pane and the built-in terminal. You will use the terminal to run Claude Code inside this project.
Start Claude Code inside the Cursor terminal and sign in with your Claude account. Check that it responds to a simple prompt before going further.
Ask Claude Code to write a short plan for your app: the pages, the features and the file structure. Read the plan and correct anything you do not want before building.
Tell Claude Code to build the app from the plan. Review each file it creates and test the app in your browser as features appear.
Initialise a Git repository in the project folder, make your first commit and push it to GitHub so you have a backup and version history.
Create a site on your hosting provider, connect your domain and upload or link the project. Follow the host's deploy steps and check the live URL loads.
Ask Claude Code to help with the deployment commands and any build errors. Fix issues one at a time and redeploy until the live site works.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep your prompts specific about the tech stack and file names so Claude Code does not guess.
Commit to Git after every working feature so you can undo a bad change quickly.
Never paste API keys or passwords into the chat; store them in environment variables.
Test the deployed site on your phone as well as your desktop before sharing the link.
Questions
Do I need to know how to code?
Not much, but you should understand basic files and folders and be comfortable typing commands in a terminal. Reading the code Claude Code writes helps you fix problems faster.
How much does this cost?
You need a paid Claude plan for Claude Code and a hosting plan for the domain. Cursor and Git are free to start, but check current pricing before you begin.
Can I use a different host?
Yes. The steps are the same for any host that supports static or Node sites. Just swap in your provider's deploy instructions.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
