What Is Github

What is GitHub?

GitHub is cloud storage for files with automatic version history and a built-in publishing system. For marketers, it's the answer to three problems at once: backup, version control, and publishing to a live URL in 60 seconds.

What you actually use GitHub for

• Backup - every file you push is safe even if your laptop dies
• Version history - see what changed, when, and roll back if needed
• Publishing - push an HTML file and it goes live at a public URL
• Team sharing - colleagues can see + reuse what you've built
• Deploy automation - push a change, the site updates automatically

You'll mostly experience GitHub through Claude, not directly. Tell Claude "commit and push" or "deploy this" - Claude runs the actual git commands.

The vocabulary in plain English

• Repo (repository) - a folder GitHub tracks. Every file, every change, saved.
• Commit - a snapshot of your work at a specific moment. You commit messages describe what changed.
• Push - send your commits from your machine up to GitHub.
• Pull - download commits from GitHub to your machine.
• Branch - a separate line of work, so you can try things without breaking the main version.
• Pull request (PR) - a proposed merge of a branch into the main version, with a place to discuss. You almost never type any of this. You tell Claude in plain English, and Claude translates.

How publishing works

GitHub Pages is a free hosting service built into GitHub. Put HTML files in a special folder (public/ or docs/ depending on setup), push, and GitHub serves them at a URL like:

https://your-username.github.io/repo-name/ https://your-custom-domain.com/

Live in 60 seconds. No servers to configur e. No deploy command to run.

Custom domain tip: you can point any domain you own (e.g. yourdomain.com) at your Pages repo so your URLs look like yourdomain.com/reports/weekly.html instead of your-username.github.io/reports/weekly.html. Better for client-facing work. Covered in Lesson 2.

3 types of repos you'll use

Your workspace repo

Your personal sandbox. Active projects in working/, finished work in archive/. Private

• only you and anyone you add to it can access. Use this for works-in-progress, drafts, experiments.

Your Pages repo

Your public publishing site. Everything in the public/ folder gets deployed to your-username.github.io. Use this for finished deliverables - reports, landing pages, dashboards.

Shared team repos

Skills libraries, client data repos, shared infrastructure. You pull from these but rarely push directly without a review process.

Why private repos, public URLs?

A common GitHub setup: repo is private (source code only visible to you), URL is public (anyone with the link sees the page).

This means

• Your raw files, notes, drafts stay private
• Only what's in your public/ folder gets published
• Deliverables are accessible to clients via URL
• Sensitive content should be encrypted before publishing (covered in Lesson 4)

Action items

☐ Confirm you have a GitHub account (set up in Module 01)

☐ Understand the vocabulary: repo, commit, push, pull

☐ Know you won't type git commands - Claude does

☐ Understand the 3 repo types and what each is for

Next lesson: Set up your workspace + pages repo.

Exercises

1. Review the concepts covered in this lesson: What Is Github.
2. Write down your key takeaway from this lesson.
3. Practice running any commands or prompts mentioned above inside your terminal.