Make a safe business folder

In your Documents folder, create a new folder named northside-bakery (or your business name, in lowercase with dashes). It must be new and empty, not your whole Documents folder or a folder full of contracts and tax files.

On Windows, open File Explorer, go to Documents, right-click an empty area and choose New, then Folder. On a Mac, open Documents in Finder and choose File, then New Folder. Don't use a Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive folder that holds other work.

Copy the folder and paste it next to the original, then rename the copy with today's date, for example northside-bakery-backup-2026-10-20. On Windows, select the folder, press Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + V. On a Mac, right-click it and choose Duplicate. Make a fresh copy like this before every big change. It is the simplest undo there is, and lesson 6 shows you how to use it.

In the Claude desktop app, open the Code tab and start a new session (Ctrl + N on Windows, Cmd + N on a Mac). Keep Local in the first control under the prompt box. Click the folder control next to it, choose Open folder… and pick northside-bakery, the working folder, not the backup. In the earlier layout of the app, the folder button sits above the prompt box.

In the same row under the prompt box there is a mode selector. Choose Manual. A new session may show another mode, such as Auto, so check it every time you open a new folder. The app remembers your choice for this folder. In Anthropic's words: “Claude asks before editing files or running commands. You see a diff and can accept or reject each change.”

First look at the mode name in the row under the prompt box: it must say Manual. Then type this request and send it:

Create a file called hello.md with one line: "Northside Bakery starts here."