Create a new repo on GitHub (init)

This page shows how you can create a new git repository. You can init a repo either on your computer locally or remotely on GitHub. This apge shows how to init a repo remotely.

Key Terms

1 Sign into GitHub website

  1. Open a browser.
  2. Visit https://github.com/
  3. Sign in

2 Click New Repository

3. Fill out repository name

Create a name to describe what this repository will do. Use lower case and dashes; no spaces allowed. For example a name could be my-first-repo

3. Select Visibility Setting

By default I recommend private; unless your goal is to share data or code publicly.

  • Public means everyone can see the contents of your repo. They can copy/fork but not make direct changes to your repo.
  • Private only you and selected teammates can see the contents of your repo. Only these select teammates can make direct changes to your repo.

4. Add a README file

README.md files are special txt files that GitHub uses to document each folder in your repository. Generally always want one to start out to help you or other navigate your project.

5. Click Create Repository

Now that we have configured our settings we can click Create Repository to make the repo.

You should now be routed to your new repo on GitHub. 👏👏👏

A few observations

  • We have only one file the README.md file
  • We only have one version/commit which is project initialization; this commit is identified by a hash key d4ff056.

Now lets move on to clone or pull this repo from the cloud onto our local computer to make some changes with GitHub Desktop