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Introduction

This guide will walk you through the basics of working with GitHub repositories - including how to create, clone, and fork repositories.

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Prerequisites

  • A Github account. If you don’t have one, sign up here.

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Guide

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Creating a repository

A repository is like a folder for your project. You can have any number of public and private repositories in your personal account. Repositories can contain folders and files, images, videos, spreadsheets, and data sets, as well as the revision history for all files in the repository. For more information, see About repositories.

When you create a new repository, you should initialize the repository with a README file to let people know about your project. For more information, see Creating a new repository.

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Cloning a repository

You can clone an existing repository from GitHub to your local computer, making it easier to add or remove files, fix merge conflicts, or make complex commits. Cloning a repository pulls down a full copy of all the repository data that GitHub has at that point in time, including all versions of every file and folder for the project. For more information, see Cloning a repository.

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Forking a repository

A fork is a copy of a repository that you manage, where any changes you make will not affect the original repository unless you submit a pull request to the project owner. Most commonly, forks are used to either propose changes to someone else’s project or to use someone else’s project as a starting point for your own idea. For more information, see Working with forks.