Your First Repository: init, add and commit

Introduction

Time to use Git for real. Throughout this course you will follow Priya as she builds and manages a small portfolio website. You can follow along on your own computer — the outputs shown here are exactly what Git printed when these commands were run.

Create a Repository

Create a folder for the project, move into it, and run git init. This creates a hidden .git folder where Git will store the entire history. Everything else in the folder stays exactly as it is.

mkdir my-portfolio
cd my-portfolio
git init

Check the Status

git status tells you what is going on in your repository: which branch you are on, what has changed and what Git suggests doing next. Run it whenever you are unsure — it never changes anything.

git status

Now create the home page. Save this as index.html in the my-portfolio folder:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Priya Sharma</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hi, I'm Priya</h1>
  <p>I'm learning web development.</p>
</body>
</html>

git status

Git has noticed the new file but lists it as untracked: it is in your working directory, but Git is not recording its history yet. Git never starts tracking a file on its own — you decide what goes into the project.

Stage a File

git add copies the current version of a file into the staging area — the list of changes that will go into your next commit.

git add index.html
git status

The file is now listed under “Changes to be committed”. Notice that git add itself printed nothing — and that git status tells you how to undo the staging if you change your mind.

Make Your First Commit

git commit saves everything in the staging area as a new snapshot. The -m option supplies the commit message directly; without it, Git opens your editor so you can write one.

git commit -m "Add home page"

Let’s read that output. main is the branch the commit was made on, and root-commit means it is the very first commit, with no parent. 55024d8 is the short form of the commit’s unique ID. The last lines summarise the change: one file with 11 new lines, created with normal file permissions (100644).

git status

“Working tree clean” means every file in your folder matches the latest commit. This is the state to aim for before switching tasks.

Commit More Files

Add a stylesheet, style.css:

body {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  margin: 40px;
}

Instead of naming each file, you can stage everything that changed in the current folder with git add . (the dot means “this folder”). It is convenient, but always check git status first so you do not stage something by accident.

git add .
git commit -m "Add basic styles"

Read the History

git log lists commits, newest first, with the full ID, author, date and message:

git log

The label (HEAD -> main) next to the newest commit tells you where you are: you are on the main branch, and main currently points to this commit. You will learn exactly what that means in the lesson on branches. For a quick overview, --oneline shows one line per commit with the short ID:

git log --oneline

Writing Good Commit Messages

A commit message explains why a change was made, for your teammates and for you in six months. Most teams follow a few simple rules:

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

Summary

Priya’s portfolio now has a home page and a stylesheet, each saved as its own commit. Next you will learn to see exactly what changed — line by line — before and after you commit, and to dig through history to find out when and why something changed.