February 2026

GitHub 101

A non-technical person's guide to getting started, written for anyone beginning their Claude Code journey.

I did not grow up writing code. My background is finance. So when I started using Claude Code, I was excited but there was one thing standing between me and actually using it: GitHub.

Nobody explained it in plain English. The documentation assumed I already knew what a repository was. Tutorials skipped the basics. This post is what I wish existed. If you are starting your Claude Code journey with no technical background, start here.

What Is GitHub?

GitHub is a platform for storing, tracking, and collaborating on code. Think of it like Google Docs for code. Every time you make changes to your project, you save a snapshot. GitHub stores all those snapshots in sequence so you always know what changed and when. If something breaks, you can go back. If someone else is working on the same project, you can both make changes without overwriting each other.

The underlying technology is called Git. GitHub is the website that hosts everything Git tracks. Git is the engine, GitHub is the garage. When you use Claude Code, it generates files. Those files need to live somewhere organized. GitHub is that place.

The Mental Model

Think of GitHub as a filing cabinet with a memory. Every folder is a project (a repository, or repo). Every time you change a file, the cabinet remembers what it looked like before. You can flip back through that history at any time and label each version so you know what happened and when. That memory is called version control. Once this clicked, everything else followed.

Key Concepts

Repository (Repo)

Your project folder, tracked by Git. All your files plus the complete history of every change ever made to them.

Branch

A parallel version of your project. By default everything lives on main. When you want to try something new, you create a branch, work there safely, then merge it back if it works. Think of it like the trunk of a tree with branches growing off it.

Commit

A saved snapshot of your changes. You attach a short message describing what changed. You choose when to commit, so you control your own history.

Push

Sends your commits from your computer up to GitHub. Until you push, your work is only saved locally.

Pull

Brings changes from GitHub down to your local machine. Run this at the start of a session to make sure you are on the latest version.

Merge

Combines two branches into one. Built something on a feature branch and it works? Merge it back into main. If the same file was edited differently on both branches, Git flags a conflict for you to resolve.

Clone

Copies a GitHub repository to your local machine. You do this once at the start, then use push and pull to stay in sync.

The Workflow

Create a repo on GitHub. Clone it to your computer. Claude Code builds and edits files in that local folder. You commit the changes. You push to GitHub. Repeat.

Build, commit, push. That is the loop. Once it is muscle memory, the rest gets easy.

The Key Commands

Run these in your terminal. On Mac that is Terminal, on Windows it is Command Prompt or PowerShell. Claude Code has its own terminal built in too. Bookmark this page. You will come back to it.

git clone [URL]

Copies a GitHub repo to your local machine. This is how you start.

git status

Shows what has changed since your last commit. Run this constantly. It is your GPS.

git add .

Stages all your changes so they are ready to commit. The period means everything.

git commit -m "your message here"

Saves a snapshot with a label. Write something honest. "Fixed export button" beats "stuff."

git push

Sends your commits up to GitHub. Until you push, the work only lives on your computer.

git pull

Brings changes from GitHub down to your machine. Run this at the start of each session.

git checkout -b feature-name

Creates a new branch and switches to it. Use this when you want to experiment without touching main.

git merge feature-name

Merges a branch into your current one. Run this from main when the feature is ready.

The Loop (Save This)

git add .

git commit -m "describe what you built"

git push

Run those three at the end of every session.

Things That Tripped Me Up

What is the difference between Git and GitHub?

Git is the version control system on your computer. GitHub is the cloud platform where repos live online. Git tracks, GitHub stores. You need both.

Why add AND commit? Why not just commit?

The add step lets you choose which changes to include. When starting out, just run git add . every time to stage everything. You can get selective later.

I got a merge conflict. Now what?

Git marks the conflict in the file with arrows showing both versions. Open the file, pick which version you want, delete the conflict markers, then commit. Paste the conflicted file into Claude Code and it will walk you through it.

Why This Matters for Claude Code

Claude Code generates files fast. Without GitHub you have no record of what changed between sessions and no way to recover a version that worked before something broke. GitHub turns a folder of generated files into a real project with history and structure. Once I started committing after every meaningful change, my projects became dramatically easier to manage.

Where to Go Next

You do not need to become a Git expert. You need the loop: clone, build, commit, push. Everything else you will pick up as you go. When something breaks, paste the error into Claude Code and it will tell you exactly what to do.

If you want to see what building with Claude Code actually looks like from the start, read my first post: From Zero to Code Hero. GitHub felt like a wall when I started. It is not. Once it is familiar it just fades away and you can focus on building.