Connecting to GitHub

Your repo currently exists only on your machine. This lesson publishes it to GitHub, making it accessible from any device and giving you a backup.

Local vs. Remote

Your local repo is the copy on your machine — the .git/ folder you created with git init. The remote is a copy hosted on GitHub. The name origin is the conventional alias for the primary remote.

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Create a Repo on GitHub

1. Log into github.com.
2. Click + (top-right) → New repository.
3. Name it my-first-repo.
4. Leave it Public (or Private if you prefer).
5. Do not check "Add a README file" — you already have one locally.
6. Do not add a .gitignore or license for now.
7. Click Create repository.

GitHub will show you setup instructions. You will use the SSH URL (starts with git@github.com:).

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Connect Local to Remote

Copy the SSH URL from GitHub (looks like git@github.com:yourname/my-first-repo.git), then run:

git remote add origin git@github.com:<username>/my-first-repo.git

This tells Git: "the remote named origin lives at this URL."

Verify the connection

git remote -v

Output:

origin  git@github.com:<username>/my-first-repo.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:<username>/my-first-repo.git (push)

Two lines — one for fetching (downloading), one for pushing (uploading).

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Push Your Code

git push -u origin main

What each part means:

• git push — upload commits to the remote
• -u — set origin main as the upstream for this branch (so future git push with no arguments knows where to go)
• origin — the remote name
• main — the local branch to push

Output:

Enumerating objects: 3, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 272 bytes | 272.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To github.com:<username>/my-first-repo.git
 * [new branch]      main -> main
Branch 'main' set up to track remote branch 'main' from 'origin'.

Refresh your GitHub repo page. Your README is now online.

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Push Subsequent Changes

After the first push, you never need -u again for the same branch:

echo "Added from lesson 2.6" >> README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m "Add note from lesson 2.6"
git push

git push with no arguments pushes the current branch to its tracked upstream.

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Summary

Command	What it does
git remote add origin <url>	Register a remote called origin
git remote -v	List registered remotes
git push -u origin main	Push and set upstream (first time)
git push	Push to the already-set upstream