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Terminal Empowerment - Your Superpower

Don't Fear the Terminal!​

The terminal is not scary. It's your superpower. While GUIs hide complexity behind buttons, the terminal gives you:

  • Full control over exactly what happens
  • Reproducibility - commands can be saved and repeated
  • Speed - no clicking through menus
  • Composability - chain commands together
  • Transparency - see exactly what's happening

Terminal is Simpler Than You Think​

GUI Way (Hidden Complexity)​

1. Open app
2. Navigate menus
3. Find setting
4. Click buttons
5. Hope it worked
6. Where did it go?

Terminal Way (Direct Control)​

claude plugin install sw-frontend@specweave
# Done. You know exactly what happened.

Claude Code CLI Basics​

Start a Session​

claude                      # Interactive mode
claude -p "fix the bug"     # Run with prompt

Use Skills​

# Inside Claude Code session:
/sw:status                  # Check increment status
/sw:do                      # Execute tasks
/sw:progress                # See progress

Install Plugins​

claude plugin install sw@specweave
claude plugin list

Why Terminal + AI = Perfect Match​

  1. AI understands terminal - Claude can write and run commands
  2. Commands are explicit - No ambiguity about what to do
  3. History is preserved - Every command logged
  4. Scriptable - Automate repeated tasks

Getting Started​

macOS/Linux​

Terminal is built-in! Press Cmd+Space, type "Terminal", hit Enter.

Windows​

Use Windows Terminal (modern) or PowerShell:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

Essential Commands for SpecWeave​

# Navigation
cd my-project              # Change directory
ls                         # List files
pwd                        # Show current path

# SpecWeave
specweave init .           # Initialize project
specweave refresh-plugins

# Claude Code
claude                     # Start session
claude plugin list         # Show plugins
claude mcp                 # Check MCP servers

# Git (works inside Claude too!)
git status
git add .
git commit -m "message"

Pro Tips​

  1. Tab completion - Press Tab to auto-complete commands
  2. Command history - Press Up/Down arrows to cycle through previous commands
  3. Copy/paste works - Cmd+C/Cmd+V (or Ctrl on Windows)
  4. Exit - Type exit or press Ctrl+D

Remember​

"The terminal doesn't make things complicated. It makes the complexity visible. And visible complexity is manageable complexity."

The GUI hides what's happening. The terminal shows you. That's not harder - that's empowering.

Learn More​