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Using GitHub to Collaborate

Git tracks changes to your project so you always have a history and can revert to an earlier version. GitHub hosts that history online and adds the tools for a team to work on the same project without stepping on each other: branches, pull requests, issues, and code review.

Source: musslick/contributor-onboarding: a hands-on course simulating a real open-source team workflow. This page summarizes it; work through the repo itself for the full exercise.

Core terms

  • Repository: your project folder, plus its full revision history.
  • Clone: pull a repository from GitHub down to your machine so you can edit it locally and sync changes back.
  • Branch: an isolated copy of the repo for developing a feature or fix without touching main until it's ready.
  • Fork: a copy of someone else's repository under your own account, for contributing to a project you don't have write access to.
  • Commit: a checkpoint of your changes, with a message describing what you did.
  • Push / pull: send your local commits to GitHub / bring down commits others have pushed.
  • Issue: a tracked task, bug, or enhancement request.
  • Pull request (PR): a request to merge one branch into another, with room for discussion and review before it lands.

The collaboration workflow

This is the loop a team repeats for every change, and it's what keeps main always in a working state:

  1. Open an issue describing the task or bug.
  2. Create a branch for that issue (from the issue page: "Development" → "Create a branch", or git checkout -b fix/short-name).
  3. Make the change and commit it with a message that says what and why.
  4. Push the branch and open a pull request into main, linking the issue it resolves.
  5. Request review from at least one teammate. They read the diff, comment, and either approve or request changes.
  6. Merge once approved. This is also when automated tests (if configured) must pass.

Protecting main (Settings → Branches → require PR review before merging) makes step 5 mandatory instead of optional, which is standard practice on any real team project.

Getting started

  • Create a GitHub account if you don't have one.
  • Install Git, or use GitHub Desktop if you'd rather not touch the command line.
  • Clone a repo: git clone <url>, or "Open in GitHub Codespaces" from the repo's green "Code" button to skip local setup entirely.

Further reading

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