GitHub Setup: Create Your Account and Authenticate

GitHub is completely free and takes about five minutes to set up. Once your account is ready, you’ll have a place to back up every project you build, share your work with potential employers, and download thousands of open-source AI tools and examples.

Go to github.com and click Sign up
Fill in your details:
- Username — Pick something professional. Employers and collaborators will see this.
- Email — Use an address you check regularly.
- Password — Make it strong.
Complete any verification steps GitHub shows you

Step 2: Verify your email

GitHub sends a verification email immediately after you sign up. Open it and click the confirmation link before doing anything else.

Step 3: Set up your profile

A complete profile makes a strong impression when you share your work:

Click your profile picture in the top right, then select Your profile
Click Edit profile
Add your Name (your real name), a Profile picture, and a short Bio like “Learning Python for AI development”

Step 4: Configure Git locally

Tell Git who you are so your commits are labelled correctly. Run these commands once in your terminal — you’ll never need to repeat this step:

# Open VS Code terminal with Ctrl+` (backtick), then run:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Use the same email address you used when signing up for GitHub.

Step 5: Choose your authentication method

When Git needs to talk to GitHub (to push or pull code), it has to verify who you are. Choose one of the three methods below:

Recommended for beginners: Use GitHub CLI. It’s the most modern option, handles everything automatically, and takes the least effort to set up.

GitHub CLI (Recommended)
HTTPS with Token
SSH Keys

GitHub CLI (gh) is GitHub’s official command-line tool. It handles authentication automatically and works with all Git operations.1. Install GitHub CLI:

Windows — Download from cli.github.com
macOS — Run brew install gh
Linux — See the installation guide

2. Authenticate:

gh auth login

3. Follow the interactive prompts:

Choose GitHub.com
Choose SSH (recommended) or HTTPS
Select Login with a web browser and follow the steps

That’s it — Git will automatically use your gh credentials from now on.

Personal Access Tokens are the traditional HTTPS authentication method.1. Generate a token on GitHub:

Go to Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic)
Click Generate new token (classic)
Give the token a descriptive name like My Laptop
Under Scopes, check repo (full repository control)
Set an expiration date, or choose No expiration for convenience
Click Generate token
Copy the token immediately — GitHub will never show it again

Save your token somewhere safe such as a password manager. If you lose it, you’ll need to generate a new one.

2. Use your token when pushing:

git push

# Git will prompt you for:
Username: your-github-username
Password: paste-your-token-here  # NOT your GitHub password!

SSH keys are the most secure method — once set up, you never type a password again.1. Generate an SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
# Press Enter for all prompts to accept the defaults

2. Start the SSH agent and add your key:

macOS / Linux
Windows

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# Run this in Git Bash (not Command Prompt):
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

3. Copy your public key:

# macOS
pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# Windows (Git Bash)
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | clip

# Linux — copy the output manually
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

4. Add the key to GitHub:

Go to github.com/settings/keys
Click New SSH key
Give it a title like My Laptop, paste your key, and click Add SSH key

5. Test the connection:

ssh -T [email protected]
# Expected response: "Hi username! You've successfully authenticated..."

When cloning repositories, use the SSH URL format:

# SSH format (use this when SSH keys are set up)
git clone [email protected]:username/repo.git

# HTTPS format (use this otherwise)
git clone https://github.com/username/repo.git

What’s next?

With your account and authentication ready, learn how to download existing projects and publish your own code to GitHub.

Clone and Create

Start working with repositories — clone AI projects and push your own code

Developer Tools

Project Structure

Weather Project

GitHub Setup: Create Your Account and Authenticate

Step 2: Verify your email

Step 3: Set up your profile

Step 4: Configure Git locally

Step 5: Choose your authentication method

What’s next?

Clone and Create

​Step 1: Sign up

​Step 2: Verify your email

​Step 3: Set up your profile

​Step 4: Configure Git locally

​Step 5: Choose your authentication method

​What’s next?

Clone and Create

Step 1: Sign up

Step 2: Verify your email

Step 3: Set up your profile

Step 4: Configure Git locally

Step 5: Choose your authentication method

What’s next?