iOi · GitHub

1 Overview

Git and GitHub are two halves of one idea: never lose your work, and always be able to go back.

Git lives on your computer. It takes labelled snapshots ("commits") of a folder, so you can see every version over time and roll back if something breaks — unlimited undo for a whole project.
GitHub lives online. It's the safe copy of your git project, off your laptop. If your machine died tomorrow, everything pushed to GitHub is still there.

Two words you'll use constantly:

Commit — save a version, on your machine, with a short note about what changed.
Push — send your commits up to GitHub, so they're backed up and shareable.

The golden rule: work only counts once it's committed and pushed. A file in a folder is one disk failure away from gone; a file pushed to GitHub is safe.

2 One-time setup

You do this once per computer. The tool that runs the commands for you is Claude Code — you tell it what you want in plain English.

Install Claude Code

In Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Then open a new Terminal window and check it worked:

claude --version

"command not found"? The installer put claude in ~/.local/bin, which your shell may not look in yet. Fix it once, then open a new window:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

This same line also makes the GitHub tool gh work, since it lives in the same place.

Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan — the same account you use for Cowork.

First commit — save a version locally

Go to your project folder and start Claude Code:

cd ~/Documents/Claude
claude

The first run asks you to pick a theme and sign in (a browser opens — approve it). Then tell it:

"Commit everything in this folder to git with a sensible message."

Now you have version history on your machine.

Connect to GitHub and push

Still in Claude Code, tell it:

"Create a new private GitHub repo called ioi-workspace under my account and push everything to it. If the GitHub CLI isn't set up, install it and run gh auth login."

The only step it can't do for you is the GitHub sign-in, because that's GitHub's own security:

Claude Code runs gh auth login and shows a one-time code (e.g. BBAD-FC99).
It opens github.com/login/device in your browser.
Enter the code, authorise, and return to Terminal.

After that it creates the repo and pushes. Your work is now private, versioned, and safely on GitHub.

3 Everyday workflow

Once set up, keeping GitHub current is one sentence. After you've made changes, open Claude Code in the folder and say:

"Commit everything and push it to GitHub."

That's the whole loop: change your files → tell Claude Code to commit and push. It writes the message, saves the version, and sends it up.

If you ever want to do it by hand, it's three lines:

git add -A
git commit -m "what I changed"
git push

git add -A — line up every change to be saved.
git commit -m "…" — save the version with a note.
git push — send it to GitHub.

Rule of thumb: commit little and often — end of a task, before a big change, before lunch. Each commit is a point you can safely return to.

4 Good habits

Clear commit messages — "Add TinkerTubs schools dashboard", not "stuff". Future-you is grateful.
Push before you stop for the day. Unpushed commits still live only on your laptop.
One folder, one repo — keep a project's files together so a single commit captures the whole thing.
Private by default for organisation work, until we decide otherwise.

5 Troubleshooting

command not found: claude or gh — the ~/.local/bin PATH line (see setup) isn't in your shell yet. Add it to ~/.zshrc and open a new window.
Git complains about a .lock file — a previous git action didn't finish cleanly. Remove the stray locks and try again:
```
find ~/Documents/Claude/.git -name '*.lock' -delete
```
Don't run git through Cowork's shell. Its sandbox can create git repos but can't tidy up after them (it leaves lock files), so git work belongs in Claude Code, which runs natively on your Mac.
Stuck on anything — paste the last few lines of the Terminal into a Claude chat and ask what to do next.