Git & GitHub: From First Commit to Team Workflow

What's inside

1. Level 1: Why Version Control and Your First RepositoryFree
   Learn what problem version control solves by saving snapshots you can return to, then install Git, set your name and email, and create your first practice repository.
2. Level 2: Working Tree, Staging Area and CommitsFree
   Understand the three places a change passes through, from the working tree to the staging area to a commit, and make small commits with clear messages.
3. Level 3: Reading History and Ignoring Clutter
   Explore what happened in a project and why using git log, git show and diffs between commits, and use .gitignore to keep build output, editor files and other clutter out of the repository.
4. Level 4: Branches and Merging
   Treat branches as cheap, movable labels for separate lines of work, and bring that work back together with fast-forward and three-way merges.
5. Level 5: Resolving Merge Conflicts
   Learn why conflicts happen when two branches change the same lines, and resolve them calmly by reading the conflict markers, choosing the right result and finishing the merge.
6. Level 6: Stash and Restore: Setting Work Aside
   Put unfinished changes aside with stash so you can switch tasks, and throw away or unstage changes you don't want with git restore.
7. Level 7: Undoing Commits: Revert, Reset and Reflog
   Choose the right tool to undo committed work: revert for shared history, reset (soft, mixed or hard) for local history, and reflog to get back commits that seem lost.
8. Level 8: GitHub Accounts, SSH Keys and Tokens
   Set up a GitHub account and authenticate from the command line with an SSH key or a fine-grained personal access token, and learn the security trade-offs of each.
9. Level 9: Remotes: Clone, Fetch, Pull and Push
   Connect a local repository to GitHub and keep the two in step, learning what fetch, pull and push each do to your branches.
10. Level 10: Pull Requests, Reviews and Branch Protection
    Propose changes through a pull request, review someone else's code with useful comments, and protect main so that changes only arrive after reviews and checks pass.
11. Level 11: Forks: Contributing to Projects You Don't Own
    Use the fork-and-pull-request model to contribute to a repository you don't have write access to, and keep your fork up to date with the original project.
12. Level 12: Rebasing and When Not To
    Rebase a branch onto the latest main and tidy commits with interactive rebase, and learn the golden rule: never rewrite history other people have already pulled.
13. Level 13: Choosing a Team Workflow
    Compare trunk-based development with feature-branch workflows, choose one that fits your team, and see briefly how GitLab and Azure Repos handle the same ideas.
14. Level 14: Tags and Releases
    Mark important points in history with annotated tags, version them consistently, and publish GitHub releases with notes and downloadable files.
15. Level 15: Issues, Projects and Discussions
    Plan and track work on GitHub with issues, labels and project boards, link that work to pull requests, and use discussions for questions that aren't tasks.
16. Level 16: A First GitHub Actions Workflow, with Secrets
    Write a first GitHub Actions workflow that runs checks on every push and pull request, keep credentials in Actions secrets rather than in code, and understand how secret scanning and push protection catch leaks.
17. Level 17: Git in VS Code, Large Files and AI Assistants
    Use VS Code's Source Control view as a habit for reviewing changes before you commit: catch large binaries that belong in Git LFS, and check every AI-written commit message or review comment against the actual diff.
18. Level 18: Final Challenge: From First Commit to Release Exam
    Prove your skills across the whole course by taking a practice project from git init through branches, conflicts, a reviewed pull request on a protected branch, a passing Actions workflow and a tagged release, recovering from a deliberate mistake along the way.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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