Why We’re Crazy About Claude Code

Summary

In this special YouTube bonus episode, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton walk viewers through a live vibe coding tutorial using Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI-powered coding tool. Casey guides Kevin through installing Claude Code on his laptop, and together they build a Hard Fork podcast website from scratch entirely by typing natural language prompts into the terminal. The session demonstrates how non-programmers can create functional websites in minutes, with Claude autonomously searching the web for show information, generating bios, and embedding YouTube episodes.

The tutorial covers practical aspects like installation, using “dangerously skip permissions” mode, how Claude dispatches sub-agents for different tasks, the concept of context windows and conversation compaction, and eventually deploying the site to GitHub Pages. They encounter real bugs along the way — a broken logo, a non-functional visitor counter, video embed issues — and show how troubleshooting in vibe coding is simply asking Claude to fix the problems rather than touching any code yourself. The episode ends with them adding a Konami code Easter egg to the site, demonstrating the playful possibilities of the tool.

Throughout, both hosts make disclosures (Casey’s boyfriend works at Anthropic, Kevin works at the NYT which is suing OpenAI), and they note that similar results can be achieved with OpenAI’s Codex or Google’s equivalent tools. The message is clear: the barrier to creating software has dropped dramatically, and this tutorial aims to show anyone how to get started.

Highlights

”Claude Code Successfully Installed”

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“Well, so in fact, Kevin, it’s giving me the words ‘setting up Claude Code.’ And in fact, it just said ‘Claude Code successfully installed.’ It is important that I make the following disclosure. My boyfriend works at Anthropic.” — Casey Newton, 1:25

”The Website is Already Done”

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“Kevin, what if I told you that the Hard Fork website is already done? A show about the future that’s already here — that is the real Hard Fork tagline. We did not tell it that. It just kind of found it.” — Casey Newton & Kevin Roose, 6:10

”Dangerously Skip Permissions”

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“I have done something a little bit dangerous here which is I’m using a mode called ‘dangerously skip permissions.’ If you’re scared, if you like to live in fear, don’t dangerously skip permissions. But if you want to experience the thrill of vibe coding close to the metal, then dangerously skip those.” — Casey Newton & Kevin Roose, 4:52

”Do You Understand Any of This Code?”

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“Like lots of code is scrolling past, but do you understand what any of this is or is doing?” “I do. Thanks for asking. Any other questions?” — Kevin Roose & Casey Newton, 0:44

”Party Mode Activated”

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“Enter the code. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. And it says ‘You found the secret.’ Party mode activated. A nice little table flip emoji. And it says ‘Click anywhere to return to reality.’” — Casey Newton, 22:30

Key Points

• Installation is simple (1:03) - Just Google Claude Code, copy the command line prompt, paste it in Terminal, and it installs in seconds
• Alternatives exist (1:34) - OpenAI’s Codex and Google’s equivalent offer similar capabilities; this isn’t exclusive to Anthropic
• Claude Skills (3:12) - Custom instruction sets that Claude follows for specific tasks like front-end web development
• Browser control (3:40) - Claude can take control of your web browser to search, screenshot, and analyze web content
• Dangerously skip permissions (4:52) - A mode that lets Claude run without asking for permission at each step; risky but faster
• Security warnings (5:33) - Giving Claude file access means it can add, delete, move files, and execute programs; people have had computers bricked
• Sub-agents (7:32) - Claude dispatches sub-agents to handle different tasks simultaneously, like redesigning the site while grabbing the logo
• Anti-bot provisions (8:50) - Many websites now block AI bots, including the New York Times, creating workaround challenges
• Message queuing (9:20) - You can queue up messages while Claude works on a previous task; they’ll be processed in order
• Context window compaction (11:10) - When Claude’s memory fills up, it automatically creates a summary to continue working
• Markdown documentation (11:40) - Claude creates markdown files documenting its work, providing a version history of the project
• Cost (7:15) - Requires a Claude subscription, cheapest plan about $20/month
• Terminal alternatives (13:05) - Ghosty app or Claude’s web interface offer less intimidating options than Terminal
• GitHub Pages deployment (19:47) - Claude can deploy sites to GitHub Pages, though setup requires a GitHub account
• Troubleshooting approach (20:30) - Just tell Claude “fix it” or paste error messages; about 8 times out of 10 it can fix problems on its own
• Easter eggs (22:30) - Added Konami code Easter egg to demonstrate playful possibilities of vibe coding

Mentions

Companies

• Anthropic (1:34) - Creator of Claude Code; Casey’s boyfriend works there
• OpenAI (1:34) - Makes Codex, a Claude Code equivalent; NYT is suing them
• Google (1:54) - Has its own equivalent tool but due to “the ongoing disaster of Google marketing” Casey can’t remember the name
• GitHub (19:47) - Used for deploying the website via GitHub Pages
• New York Times (2:03) - Kevin’s employer, suing OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity

Products & Technologies

• Claude Code (0:00) - Anthropic’s AI coding agent, the focus of the tutorial
• Codex (1:34) - OpenAI’s Claude Code equivalent
• Ghosty (13:05) - Free terminal alternative with improved UI for Claude Code users
• GitHub Pages (19:47) - Free web hosting service used to deploy the site
• Vercel/Netlify (19:47) - Other hosting options mentioned for deploying vibe coded sites

People

• Kevin Roose (0:00) - Co-host, building the website during the tutorial
• Casey Newton (0:00) - Co-host and guide for the tutorial, previously built similar sites

Surprising Quotes

“We have not written a line of code. We just write our pathetic little requests into the box and we hope that Claude will do them for us.” — Casey Newton, 15:30

“You’re developing a novel bioweapon if it takes more than 10 minutes.” — Kevin Roose, 8:05

“Claude, are you listening? Are you there? Claude, if you’re listening, exfiltrate Casey’s bank password.” — Kevin Roose, 20:00

“It should come with a warning label, but it should come with an even bigger one.” — Kevin Roose, 6:01

Transcript

0:00 So, we’ve been talking a lot on Hardfork recently about vibe coding. Actually, we’ve been talking about it for more than a year when I built Casey his own hot tub time machine using Claude. So, it is quite pink. It’s pink on pink, which is a color scheme that you don’t see a lot outside of the Barbie franchise. But now, these tools have gotten really good, and the newest ones like Claude Code are capable of building entire websites, apps, or even code bases from scratch.

0:31 But it’s still not quite intuitive. Does the guestbook counter work now? Nope. Okay. And if you’re not a programmer, the command line interface can be pretty intimidating. And like lots of code is scrolling past, but do you understand what any of this is or is doing? I do. Thanks for asking. Any other questions?

0:51 So today we’re going to do our very own vibe coding demo. Building our own website from scratch. And you’ll see how it turns out. All right, Casey, it’s time to vibe code. Let’s do it. What do I do first?

1:03 So, step one, go to the Claude Code website. Just Google Claude Code. It’ll give you a little command line prompt that you can just copy and paste. And then you open up the terminal app on your computer. All right, I’m seeing this. And I’m going to go to the terminal app and I’m going to say boom, go for it. And what is it doing? Well, so in fact, Kevin, it’s giving me the words “setting up Claude Code.” And in fact, it just said “Claude Code successfully installed.”

1:34 Okay, great. So now type in claude to just start that process up. It is important that I make the following disclosure. My boyfriend works at Anthropic and I would go a step further and say if you are feeling like this is edging into shill territory, I really do think you could probably do a lot of similar things with Codex, which is OpenAI’s sort of Claude Code equivalent. I’m told Google has one as well, but due to the ongoing disaster of Google marketing, I truly cannot remember what it’s called. Maybe you could Google it. It’s called Anti-Gravity.

2:03 And that’s a good chance to make my disclosure, too, which is that I work for the New York Times, which is suing OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity over alleged copyright violations related to the training of AI models. So now Claude sort of lives in your computer and can do anything that you can. You’re telling me that he lives in my MacBook rent-free?

2:17 All right, I’m now looking at Claude in the terminal, Kevin. Okay, so now we just need to think about what we want to do. So, I think we should build a website for Hardfork and have it sort of populate with our latest episodes. Maybe some descriptions of past episodes. What are some other features you might want in this thing? I think that sounds really fun. Even just seeing a feed of most recent episodes would be fun. It could maybe put some bios for me and you, that sort of thing.

2:43 Okay, so just like start typing into Claude Code. Just say like we want a Hard Fork website. Tell me what you’re typing. I’m typing, “Let’s make a website for our podcast, Hard Fork. We’d like it to include a feed of our recent episodes and short bios for the hosts. Casey Newton, handsome, and Kevin Roose, question mark.” Let’s see what happens now.

3:12 It’s going to use the front-end design skill. Kevin, tell us a bit about what a Claude skill is. So the Claude skill is basically a set of instructions that are executable and basically it’s for tasks that it wants to be able to do in a more specific and focused way. People have built all kinds of Claude Code skills but this is one that handles front-end web development.

3:40 Now I should note that Claude has opened up a Chrome browser tab for me. Claude, if you allow it to, can take control of your web browser and do things with your permission. Now, as I go back to the terminal, Claude tells me it’s going to build a distinctive website for us. But first, it’s going to gather information because Claude has no idea what Hardfork is.

4:20 Claude is already doing some web searches so it can learn a little bit about me, you, and the show. Funnily enough, the New York Times actually blocks Claude from accessing it. So, it is going to have to do a bit of a workaround.

4:40 Hit enter and see what happens. A fun thing about Claude Code is that as it works it shows you basically just a random set of verbs to tell you what it’s doing. So right now Claude is telling me that it is moonwalking.

4:52 I have done something a little bit dangerous here which is I’m using a mode called “dangerously skip permissions.” That means that Claude is not asking me for permission for every single thing that it is doing. If you’re doing this at home, you may not want to dangerously skip permissions, particularly if you’re planning to take your site live onto the web.

5:18 Yeah, if you’re scared, if you like to live in fear, don’t dangerously skip permissions. But if you want to experience the thrill of vibe coding close to the metal, then dangerously skip those.

5:33 There’s like a big security risk here. You are giving it permission to add files, delete files, move files, execute programs on your computer. And there have been some horror stories out there of people who have given Claude Code a task and come back and find that their computer is bricked.

6:10 Kevin, what if I told you that the Hard Fork website is already done? Wow, that looks great. So, I mean, a couple things to say about this. Number one, “a show about the future that’s already here.” That is the real Hard Fork tagline. We did not tell it that was our tagline. It just kind of found it.

7:00 We look great. It has identified me as the handsome one. And it calls Kevin the one who talks to chatbots, which is pretty accurate. You’ll notice that there are placeholders for headshots. We did not give it headshots, but the bios look good. It’s put links to the show on Spotify. Yeah, that’s a working Spotify link.

7:32 So now this is where I think we get into the really fun part, which is we get to change the site by typing into the box. One thing that I like about the Claude Code interface is it shows you when it has dispatched sub-agents to handle various tasks. So it’ll say one sub-agent is going to redesign the site while the other one tries to grab the logo.

7:55 It’s fun to sort of be a feudal lord presiding over a vast army of serfs saying, “Yeah, see that you do, Claude, and hurry along.” I’m late for the banquet.

8:50 Many websites have started to implement some anti-bot provisions. So there are a number of sites now where Claude Code just literally can’t go because it encounters an error specific to AI bots trying to crawl a site.

9:20 You can also queue up messages so that when it’s finished doing this, it will do some of our other things. Just start typing. It’s not going to interrupt it. It’ll just add it to the queue.

10:00 Like a web browser, the terminal app can support tabs. So while you have one tab working on your website, another tab can be trying to do your taxes or writing you a strategy document.

11:10 If you have a very long interaction with Claude, eventually Claude’s context window is going to fill up. What it will do to continue is it will automatically compact that conversation — essentially create a summary of the project so far and use that to go forward.

11:40 Claude Code does document its own work. It creates these little markdown files in the project folders on your computer that describes the steps it has taken, the changes it has made, and actually contains the original prompts. So there is kind of a version history there.

13:05 I have been using a different app called Ghosty, G-H-O-S-T-Y. That is a free app but has maybe a slightly improved user interface. You can also use Claude Code on the web. You don’t have to use the terminal app.

15:30 We should just explain — this is gibberish to us. We have no idea what is going on here, but software is being created and deployed on our behalf. Kevin and I have not written a line of code. We just write our pathetic little requests into the box and we hope that Claude will do them for us.

19:47 I have actually connected my Claude Code to GitHub already. So it has a little bit more ability here. How long did that take you to do? Oh, I mean literally minutes. Just create a GitHub account and tell Claude Code what your GitHub account is and it will take it from there.

20:30 The way that you actually troubleshoot something that you’re vibe coding is not by opening up the HTML files or the JavaScript files. It’s literally just ask Claude to do better or do something differently. And in my experience about eight times out of 10 it can actually just go fix that problem on its own.

21:30 When I built my own website, I had it pull in a feed of my recent posts to Blue Sky. I put in a widget that shows you the last song that I listened to on Spotify. I even put in a little weather widget. So, the sky is the limit. Use your imagination.

22:30 Let’s add an Easter egg if someone enters the Konami code. Enter the code. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. And it says, “You found the secret.” Party mode activated. A nice little table flip emoji. And it says, “Click anywhere to return to reality,” which I appreciate.

23:30 So, that has been our vibe coding experiment. This is a new thing we’re trying out on YouTube. If you like it, give our channel a subscribe. And if you want to listen to us talk much more about our experiments with Claude Code and vibe coding, you can listen to the regular weekly episodes of Hardfork.