Setup Guide

Basecamp
in Claude Code.

Follow these steps to connect your Basecamp account to Claude. No technical experience needed.

Works on any Mac
About 10 minutes
5 simple steps

Before you start

🖥

Terminal

The black window where you type commands. You'll use this for most steps.

⌘ Space → "Terminal" → Enter
🌐

Web Browser

Chrome or Safari. It will open automatically during the login step.

Installation steps

1
⬛ Terminal

Install Homebrew

Homebrew is Mac's package manager — it lets you install software from Terminal. Copy and paste the line below, then hit Enter.

Terminal
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

It will ask for your Mac password. Type it and hit Enter — you won't see the characters appear, that's normal. Wait until you see the $ symbol again before moving on.

✅
Already installed? It will say "Homebrew is already installed" and stop. That's fine — move to Step 2.
2
⬛ Terminal

Install Node.js

Node.js gives you a tool called npx that's needed later. Copy and paste this, then hit Enter.

Terminal
brew install node
✅
Check it worked: Type node --version and hit Enter. You should see a version number like v25.0.0.
3
⬛ Terminal

Install the Basecamp CLI

This installs the Basecamp command-line tool. Run these one at a time — paste the first, hit Enter, wait for it to finish, then do the second.

Terminal — run first
brew tap basecamp/tap
Terminal — run second
brew install --cask basecamp/tap/basecamp
✅
Check it worked: Type basecamp --version and hit Enter. You should see: basecamp version 0.7.2 (or newer).
4
🌐 Terminal + Browser

Log into Basecamp

This links your Basecamp account to the CLI. Paste the command below and hit Enter — your browser will open automatically.

Terminal
basecamp auth login

In the browser: log in with your Basecamp username and password, then click Allow Access. Come back to Terminal when done.

✅
You should see: "Authentication successful!" in green in Terminal.
5
◆ Terminal

Connect to Claude Code

This final command links everything together and installs the Basecamp skill directly into Claude Code.

Terminal
basecamp setup claude
✅
You should see: "Claude Code plugin installed" in green.

You're all set.

Close Claude Code completely and reopen it. Then try asking:

"How many open to-dos do I have in Basecamp?"

Claude will pull your real Basecamp data in seconds.

Something went wrong?

🛟

Take a screenshot of what you see in Terminal and share it with Claude. Include the exact error message text so it can help you fix it right away.