Git & GitHub
Git is a time machine for your project — it saves snapshots you can always return to. GitHub is where those snapshots live online, and what triggers your site to rebuild. You rarely need more than four moves.
↳ Hands-on in Academy: Edit & publish — the daily rhythm walks the whole commit → push → live loop.
The words, plainly
| Word | Means |
|---|---|
| Repository (repo) | Your project folder, tracked by git. |
| Commit | A saved snapshot, with a short note on what changed. |
| Push | Send your commits up to GitHub. |
| Pull | Bring down changes from GitHub. |
| Branch | A parallel line of work you can merge back later. |
Why it matters: every commit is a moment you can go back to. It's the best undo button there is — experiment freely, because a working version is always saved.
Without the terminal — GitHub Desktop
Install it (brew install --cask github, or desktop.github.com), sign in, then it's buttons:
| Do this | In GitHub Desktop |
|---|---|
| Start tracking a folder | File → Add Local Repository |
| Put it on GitHub | Publish repository |
| Save a snapshot | type a summary → Commit |
| Send it up | Push origin |
With the terminal — the four moves
git add -A # stage all your changes
git commit -m "what changed" # save a snapshot
git push # send it to GitHub
git pull # get others' changesForgotten the exact command? Paste your goal to the AI agent and it gives you the line.
Why push at all?
Because that's the deploy trigger: on most of our setups, a push to GitHub makes Cloudflare rebuild the site automatically. Git is the source of truth; the laptop is disposable.
See it end to end — Academy: Zero to a live website → · Install it first: Homebrew