Claude Code for beginners: we built a reading tracker without coding

01First, is Claude Code free?

No. On Anthropic's pricing page, read on October 23, 2026, the Claude Code row shows a cross for the Free plan and a tick for Pro and Max. The page says Claude Code "is included in all paid plans". Pro costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month if you pay $200 for a year. If you want a free start, OpenAI's Codex is included in ChatGPT's Free plan, with the GPT-6 Luna model in the desktop app, "subject to rollout".

02The request we typed

We wrote it the way a normal person would: what it should show, what each button does, the tricky cases, and where the file goes. Copy it and change the books to yours.

Build me a simple reading tracker that opens in my web browser.
Start it with three made-up books: River Walk, not read yet. The Blue Room, already read. Small Gardens, not read yet.
I want to:
- add a book by typing its title and clicking Add
- tick a box when I have read a book
- search my books by title, capital letters should not matter
- switch between All and Unread
- see how many books are showing
If I add the same title twice, keep them as two separate books: ticking one must not tick the other. Ignore extra spaces and never add a blank book.
Keep my list when I close and reopen the page, on this computer only.
No account, no payments, nothing sent online. Put everything in one file called index.html.

03How we ran it

• Claude Code with Claude Opus 5.5, the default model on Pro according to Anthropic's docs, in a new empty folder, on October 23, 2026.
• OpenAI Codex with GPT-6.1 Sol at its "ultra" setting, in another empty folder, the same morning. That model is not the one the free plan gets.
• Both were told to work in their folder only, with nothing sent online. We did not touch the code.

04What came back

Codex wrote its file in 1 min 47 s, Claude Code in 3 min 7 s. Both then tested their own work with a small script before answering. Claude Code explained more, including two limits we would not have spotted:

Your reading tracker is ready: it's the file **index.html** in this folder. Double-click it and it opens in your web browser. You don't need to install anything.
[…]
Two things to know:
- The list is kept by the browser you open it in. If you open the file in a different browser (Safari instead of Chrome, say), you'll see the starting list there instead of yours.
- You can't remove a book yet, because you didn't ask for that. If you add one by mistake, I can add a small delete button.

Your reading tracker is ready: index.html. Double-click it to open in your browser.

All requested features are included, with local saving and independent duplicate books. Passed 44 offline behavior checks.

Nothing is blocked. Browser testing was skipped as instructed; no network or server was used.

05Our 10-check test

A tool saying "it works" is not proof, so we opened both files in a browser and clicked through the same ten checks, with zero internet requests:

1. It opens with 3 books and The Blue Room ticked.
2. Searching room shows 1 book.
3. Unticking The Blue Room works.
4. Clearing the search shows all 3 again.
5. " Atlas " with extra spaces is added as Atlas.
6. A second Atlas is a separate book.
7. A title made of spaces adds nothing.
8. Ticking the first Atlas leaves the second one unticked.
9. Unread shows 4 books with one Atlas; All shows 5.
10. After a reload, all 5 books and their ticks are still there.

Both scored 10 out of 10. Then we asked one follow-up: a Delete button that removes only the book you click, even when two books share a title. Both got it right first time, 3 out of 3, and Claude Code added an Undo link it told us about.

Thanks, it works. One more thing: add a small Delete button on each book. If I have two books with the same title, deleting one must keep the other.

06Do it yourself in 5 steps

1. 1
   Pick your plan

   Claude Code needs Claude Pro or higher. Codex works on ChatGPT's free plan, with the GPT-6 Luna model.

2. 2
   Install it

   On a Mac, Anthropic's quickstart gives one line to paste in Terminal: curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash. Claude Code also has a desktop app.

3. 3
   Start in an empty folder

   Make a new folder, open it, type claude, and sign in the first time it asks.

4. 4
   Describe the result, not the code

   Say what it shows, what each button does, the tricky cases, and "one file called index.html".

5. 5
   Click everything, then ask for one change

   Double-click the file, try every button, reload the page, and ask for one fix or feature at a time.

07Our verdict

For a small personal tool, both worked on the first try, and neither needed a fix. Claude Code was slower but explained its limits in plain words, which helps a beginner. Codex was faster and is the one you can start for free. Whatever you use, test it yourself: our ten checks took two minutes.