Hello World

Follow this Hello World exercise to learn GitHub's pull request workflow.

In this article

Introduction

This tutorial teaches you GitHub essentials like repositories, branches, commits, and pull requests. You'll create your own Hello World repository and learn GitHub's pull request workflow, a popular way to create and review code.

In this quickstart guide, you will:

  • Create and use a repository.
  • Start and manage a new branch.
  • Make changes to a file and push them to GitHub as commits.
  • Open and merge a pull request.

Prerequisites

  • You must have a GitHub account. For more information, see Creating an account on GitHub.

  • You don't need to know how to code, use the command line, or install Git (the version control software that GitHub is built on).

Step 1: Create a repository

The first thing we'll do is create a repository. You can think of a repository as a folder that contains related items, such as files, images, videos, or even other folders. A repository usually groups together items that belong to the same "project" or thing you're working on.

Often, repositories include a README file, a file with information about your project. README files are written in Markdown, which is an easy-to-read, easy-to-write language for formatting plain text. You can learn more about Markdown and README files in Basic writing and formatting syntax and Managing your profile README.

GitHub lets you add a README file at the same time you create your new repository. GitHub also offers other common options such as a license file, but you do not have to select any of them now.

Your hello-world repository can be a place where you store ideas, resources, or even share and discuss things with others.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, select , then click New repository.

    Screenshot of a GitHub dropdown menu showing options to create new items. The menu item "New repository" is outlined in dark orange.

  2. In the "Repository name" box, type hello-world.

  3. In the "Description" box, type a short description. For example, type "This repository is for practicing the GitHub Flow."

  4. Select whether your repository will be Public or Private.

  5. Select Add a README file.

  6. Click Create repository.

Step 2: Create a branch

Branching lets you have different versions of a repository at one time.

By default, your repository has one branch named main that is considered to be the definitive branch. You can create additional branches off of main in your repository.

Branching is helpful when you want to add new features to a project without changing the main source of code. The work done on different branches will not show up on the main branch until you merge it, which we will cover later in this guide. You can use branches to experiment and make edits before committing them to main.

When you create a branch off the main branch, you're making a copy, or snapshot, of main as it was at that point in time. If someone else made changes to the main branch while you were working on your branch, you could pull in those updates.

This diagram shows:

  • The main branch
  • A new branch called feature
  • The journey that feature takes through stages for "Commit changes," "Submit pull request," and "Discuss proposed changes" before it's merged into main

Diagram of the two branches. The "feature" branch diverges from the "main" branch and is then merged back into main.

Creating a branch

  1. Click the Code tab of your hello-world repository.

  2. Above the file list, click the dropdown menu that says main.