# New to the terminal? > What a terminal is, why coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex run in one, how to open one on Windows, macOS and Linux, and a few safe habits. > > Markdown copy of https://ignoreprevious.dev/terminal/ A terminal is a window where you type commands instead of clicking. It looks bare, but it only does what the command says. This page covers what you need to run the commands on this site. [What it is](https://ignoreprevious.dev/terminal/#what-h) [Open one](https://ignoreprevious.dev/terminal/#open-h) [Safe habits](https://ignoreprevious.dev/terminal/#habits-h) [Agents](https://ignoreprevious.dev/terminal/#agents-h) ## What you're looking at An example terminal window on Windows, with three numbered parts explained below. 1. **Where you are.** The folder the terminal is working in. Commands act on this folder unless they say otherwise. It looks different on each system: see Open one below. 2. **What you type.** Type or paste a command here, then press Enter. Paste one line at a time: text with a line break in it can run straight away. 3. **What comes back.** The command's answer. When it finishes, the "where you are" line comes back, ready for the next command. ## Open one in your project folder Most commands on this site need to run in your project's folder, the folder that holds the code or site you want to check. These are the ways we recommend to open a terminal there. ### Windows 1. Open File Explorer and go into your project folder. 2. **Windows 11:** right-click an empty part of the folder and choose **Open in Terminal**. **Windows 10:** hold Shift, right-click an empty part of the folder and choose **Open PowerShell window here**. 3. A window opens. The last line shows your folder, like this: PS C:\Users\you\my-project> The app is called PowerShell. Commands on this site work in it. ### macOS 1. Press Cmd + Space, type **Terminal** and press Return. 2. Type `cd` and a space. Don't press Return yet. 3. Drag your project folder from Finder into the Terminal window. Its path appears after `cd`. Now press Return. 4. The last line ends with your folder's name, like this: you@Mac my-project % `cd` means "change directory": go into this folder. ### Linux 1. Open your file manager and go into your project folder. 2. Right-click an empty part of the folder and choose **Open in Terminal**. If your file manager has no such option, press Ctrl + Alt + T (this works on many desktops, including Ubuntu), then type `cd`, a space and the folder's path, and press Enter. 3. The last line ends with your folder's name, like this: you@laptop:~/my-project$ `cd` means "change directory": go into this folder. ## Safe habits ### Read it first A command can do anything you can do on your computer. We recommend running commands only from a source you trust, and reading each one before you press Enter. ### Paste - Ctrl + V on Windows - Cmd + V on macOS - Ctrl + Shift + V in most Linux terminals ### Stop Ctrl + C usually stops the command that's running, on every system. In Windows Terminal, click in the window first so no text is selected, or it copies instead. Closing the window stops it too. ## Why coding agents run in a terminal A coding agent is a program that reads and changes files and runs commands for you. You start it in your project folder and it works there. The terminal shows each step. You can see what it wants to run. Its settings decide what it may do without asking: [Clank Safely](https://ignoreprevious.dev/clank-safely/) explains them. ### Claude Code Anthropic's coding agent. [Official install page](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup) ### Codex OpenAI's coding agent, in its command-line version (Codex CLI). [Official install page](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/codex/cli) ### Node.js Not an agent: the program that runs `npx whatsallowed`. What's Allowed needs version 20 or later. [Official download page](https://nodejs.org/en/download) We don't copy install commands here. They change, so take them from the official page. ## Rather not type commands? The commands on our home page have an **Ask your agent** tab, with a prompt to paste into Claude Code, Codex or Cursor instead, and one for claude.ai or ChatGPT. Clank Safely has a prompt too. Each prompt tells the agent to use only our official code, to show you each command and wait for your yes, and to say what it changed. [**Back to the tools** What's Allowed, Unclank and Clank Safely. Go to the home page](https://ignoreprevious.dev/) --- [github.com/ignore-previous](https://github.com/ignore-previous) The code for this site, What's Allowed and Unclank is public there. Say hello: hello@ignoreprevious.dev New to ChatGPT or Claude? 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