Getting started with GitHub

Git is the most common way to manage code repositories, and GitHub is the way to share the details of your code and its versions using a Git framework.

The first steps to working with our source code, require

This page is here to help you through these first steps.

Setting up your GitHub account

First off, you should get set up on GitHub.

Need a GitHub Account?

If you have never used GitHub before, go to github.com and create an account.

Already on GitHub, but want to attach your institutional email?

If you already have a GitHub Account but want to do work affiliated with an institutional email address, the best way to do this is to add the institutional email to your current account.

By doing this, all of your GitHub activity will be logged under the same GitHub account.

MIT GitHub (not what you want for this)

MIT contracts an enterprise GitHub (github.mit.edu, referred to here as "MIT GitHub") that is a separate website from the regular GitHub (github.com, here just "GitHub").

MIT GitHub provides a secure way for MIT students, faculty, and staff to develop in private repositories and share those repositories in a space that is only "public" for MIT GitHub account-holders. We will instead use GitHub so that can be more flexible in code distribution.

More info about MIT GitHub can be found on MIT IST's site.