Screenshot the error
A guest's first terminal, and it broke. I knew the fix and did not tell her. Instead we practised the thing you do when I am not there. Copy everything, or take a screenshot, paste it in, and read what comes back.
- Where
- In the terminal, with Claude Code
- Size
- A quick one
- Short link
- piy.show/s107
It's not good
A session with a guest, in her first terminal. We ran a command and it broke. Red lines, and she looked at me. I knew what was wrong, and I did not tell her.
That was the point of the session. The day I am not there, the error is still there. So we practised the thing you do instead of calling me.
Why did I not just tell her the fix? Prompt it yourself
Something broke in my terminal. Before you fix it, tell me in one sentence what the error says.
Copy everything, not the last line
Copy everything you can see on the terminal. The command you ran, and all of what came back. Not that line, not that line. Everything. The agent needs the start of the story, not the last word of it.
If copying is hard, take a screenshot and drop it in. The agent reads pictures. More information is always better than a guess.
How do I do this step myself? Prompt it yourself
Here is everything my terminal shows, from the command I ran to the end. What is happening?
I can help you build yours
I build things like this with an AI agent, on my own computer. In a private session I help you do the same with your idea. Or bring it to the show, free.
Paste it, press enter, read
Paste it in and press enter. It says back what is happening, in plain words, and then it fixes it.
That is the whole loop. Error, copy, paste, read. You do not have to understand the error. You have to hand it over. Nobody has to call their brother.
What if the fix does not work either? Prompt it yourself
Fix it, and tell me what you changed, so I know it next time.
Start with your next error
The next time something breaks, do not close the window. Copy all of it, or screenshot it, and paste it to the agent before you ask anybody.
What do I do next? Prompt it yourself
Here is the error. What is happening, and what do I do next?
Do it in the terminal
I do this with Claude Code, the AI agent in the terminal. It works in a folder on your own computer, so it reads your files every time and can look things up for you.
A web chat works too, but there you paste everything in again in every new chat.
-
Get Claude Code
It comes with Claude Pro, US$20 a month, paid to Anthropic. Claude's plans
-
Make a folder for it, and open it
mkdir -p ~/projects/my-first-project && cd ~/projects/my-first-project
-
Start the agent
claude
-
Ask it
Here is everything my terminal shows, from the command I ran to the end. What is happening, and what do I do next?
Never opened a terminal? In a private session I put Claude Code on your computer with you, and you start your first idea.
Prompty