You don't need to be a developer. This guide walks you from never having opened a terminal to running Claudio on your computer — every step explained, no skipping.
Before you start
Claudio is a tool you run on your own computer. To use it, you need three things: an account on GitHub (where your code lives), an account with a model provider of your choice — Claude, ChatGPT, OpenRouter, or any other supported provider (this is what gives Claudio its intelligence) — and a small set of programs installed on your machine. We will set all three up together.
If a step uses a word you don't know — "terminal", "package manager", "global install" — keep reading. Each one is explained the first time it appears. Take your time. The whole walkthrough takes about 30–45 minutes the first time, and from then on you only ever type one command to run Claudio.
What you'll have at the end
A working terminal, Node.js installed, a model provider set up (Claude, ChatGPT, or any other one you pick), the GitHub CLI logged in, and the Claudio CLI installed and running. Then you'll send Claudio your first task and watch it open a real pull request on GitHub.
Step 1
A terminal is a program that lets you type commands instead of clicking buttons. When you click a button in an app, behind the scenes that click is just a shorter way of running a command. The terminal lets you run those commands directly. Every program you'll install in this guide is installed by typing one or two lines into the terminal.
Press Command (⌘) + Space to open Spotlight, type "Terminal", and press Enter. A small dark window appears with a blinking cursor. That's it — you're in.
On Windows the terminal program is usually called "Command Prompt" (older name: cmd), "PowerShell", or — on Windows 11 — "Terminal". Click Start and type any of those three names; whichever one your version of Windows shows in the list, click it and press Enter. A dark window opens with a blinking cursor — that's your terminal, regardless of which of the three names launched it.
Press Ctrl + Alt + T, or search for "Terminal" in your applications menu.
When this guide shows a line in a code box, click into the terminal window, type or paste exactly what's in the box, and press Enter. The terminal runs the command and prints the result on the next line. If nothing seems to happen, the command probably worked — terminals are quiet on success.
Step 2
Node.js is the engine that runs JavaScript programs outside of a web browser. The Claudio CLI is a JavaScript program, so it needs Node.js to run. Installing Node.js also gives you a program called "npm" — a package manager that downloads and installs other JavaScript programs for you (we'll use it in Step 5).
Go to the official Node.js download page and grab the LTS version (Long Term Support — the stable one). Run the installer and click "Next" until it finishes. You don't need to change any settings.
Open the Node.js download pageOpen a NEW terminal window (the old one won't see Node.js until you do). Type this and press Enter:
node --versionYou should see something like v20.18.0. If you do, Node.js is installed. If you see "command not found", close every terminal window, open a new one, and try again.
Step 3
Claudio's pipeline runs through one model provider you choose on first launch. There's nothing to install at this step — just pick the option that fits you, then move on. The Claudio CLI walks you through the actual setup the first time you run it (step 5).
If you already pay for Claude.ai (Pro, Max, or Team), this is the lowest-friction path. Claudio just reuses your existing Claude Code login — no API key, no extra setup on your end. You'll need Anthropic's Claude Code CLI installed (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code, then run claude once to log in) — Claudio prompts you for this when you pick Claude Code on the provider screen.
If you have ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Team, Claudio signs you in directly via OAuth on first launch — no extra CLI to install, no API key, no manual codex login. Pick ChatGPT subscription on the provider screen and a browser window opens automatically.
Bring your own key from OpenRouter, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Cloudflare Workers AI, Moonshot, Kimi For Coding, and many more. Claudio runs verified model families like Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5, DeepSeek V4 Pro, MiMo v2.5 Pro, and Kimi K2.6 across these providers. Pick a provider on the first-launch screen, paste your key, and you're set.
If you already pay Anthropic, go with Claude Code. If you already pay ChatGPT, go with ChatGPT subscription. Otherwise, OpenRouter is the easiest one-key path to every verified model family — sign up, copy your key, paste it. You can switch providers any time from the Claudio CLI's main menu.
Step 4
GitHub is where code lives online. A "repository" (or "repo") is one project's worth of code. A "pull request" (or "PR") is a proposed change to a repository — Claudio's whole job is to open these for you so you can review them and click Merge.
If you don't have one, sign up at github.com — it's free.
The GitHub CLI is a small program called gh that lets Claudio create branches, push code, and open pull requests on your behalf. Install it from the official site:
Open the GitHub CLI install pagePick your operating system at the top of that page and follow the one-line instructions. On macOS, brew install gh works. On Windows, the official .msi installer is the easiest path.
Once it's installed, in your terminal run:
gh auth loginIt asks a few questions. Pick GitHub.com, then HTTPS, then "Login with a web browser". Copy the one-time code it shows, paste it into the browser tab it opens, and approve. Done — Claudio can now open pull requests on your behalf.
Step 5
Now that Node.js and the GitHub CLI are set up — and you've picked your model provider — installing Claudio itself is just one command. You'll finish the provider setup inside the CLI on first launch.
In your terminal:
npm install -g claudio-cli@latestThe -g flag means "global" — it installs claudio so it works from any folder. Wait for the prompt to come back.
Now type:
claudio-cliThe Claudio interface opens. The first time it asks you to log in to claudiopipe.com — follow the prompt, approve in your browser, and come back. From here on, every time you want to use Claudio, all you do is open a terminal and type claudio-cli.
Step 6
Inside Claudio, pick a GitHub repository you own (or let Claudio create a brand-new one for you), then choose "Send a task". Type something simple like "Add a /health endpoint that returns 200 OK" and press Enter.
You'll see five named workers light up in sequence: PM (writes the spec), Dev (writes the code), Review (reads the diff), QA (tests it), Merge (ships it). When it's done, Claudio shows you the link to the pull request it opened on GitHub. Click it. You can read the change, comment on it, and merge it whenever you're ready — same as any other PR a human teammate might open.
If something doesn't work
Close every terminal window and open a new one. New programs are only visible to terminals that opened after they were installed.
On macOS / Linux, npm install -g sometimes needs your computer's login password (the same one you use to unlock the screen). Type it and press Enter — it won't show as you type, that's normal.
Right-click the Terminal icon and pick "Run as administrator" before running the install command.
Run claude one more time and finish the browser approval. The token saves automatically; you don't need to copy anything by hand.
Open a support ticket and tell us exactly which step you're on and what the terminal printed. We read every one.
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