GitHub & Version Control

Git is the foundation of every project. This covers the daily workflow — commits, branches, PRs — plus the GitHub CLI to skip the browser entirely.

Setup

# First-time global config
git config --global user.name "Wayan Phantom"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"  # VS Code as default editor

# Install GitHub CLI
brew install gh   # macOS
gh auth login

Create a Repo

# Init locally then push to GitHub
git init
git add .
git commit -m "init"
gh repo create my-project --public --source=. --remote=origin --push

# Clone existing repo
git clone https://github.com/username/my-project.git
cd my-project

# Clone via SSH (no password prompts)
git clone git@github.com:username/my-project.git

Daily Commit Flow

# Check what changed
git status
git diff

# Stage specific files (preferred over git add .)
git add src/components/Button.tsx
git add src/styles/button.css

# Stage all changes in a directory
git add src/

# Commit
git commit -m "feat: add Button component with hover states"

# Stage + commit tracked files in one step
git commit -am "fix: correct border radius on mobile"

# Push
git push
git push -u origin main   # first push, sets upstream

Commit message conventions

Follow Conventional Commits:

feat:     new feature
fix:      bug fix
docs:     documentation only
style:    formatting, no logic change
refactor: code restructure, no behavior change
perf:     performance improvement
test:     adding tests
chore:    build process, tooling, deps
ci:       CI/CD changes

Branching

# Create and switch to new branch
git checkout -b feat/auth-flow

# Modern equivalent
git switch -c feat/auth-flow

# List all branches
git branch -a

# Switch branch
git switch main

# Delete branch (local)
git branch -d feat/auth-flow       # safe delete (only if merged)
git branch -D feat/auth-flow       # force delete

# Delete branch (remote)
git push origin --delete feat/auth-flow

# Rename current branch
git branch -m new-name

Branch naming

feat/user-auth
fix/login-redirect
chore/update-deps
release/v1.2.0
hotfix/payment-null-check

Pull Requests

# Push branch and open PR in one command
git push -u origin feat/auth-flow
gh pr create --title "feat: add user auth flow" --body "Closes #42"

# Open PR in browser
gh pr view --web

# List open PRs
gh pr list

# Check out someone else's PR locally
gh pr checkout 42

# Merge PR via CLI
gh pr merge 42 --squash --delete-branch

PR workflow (solo)

git switch -c feat/dark-mode
# ... make changes ...
git add . && git commit -m "feat: add dark mode toggle"
git push -u origin feat/dark-mode
gh pr create --fill          # uses commit message as title/body
gh pr merge --squash --delete-branch
git switch main && git pull

PR workflow (team)

# Keep branch up to date with main
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main        # preferred over merge for cleaner history

# Resolve conflicts if any
git add .
git rebase --continue

# Force push after rebase (only safe on your own branch)
git push --force-with-lease

Stash

# Save uncommitted changes temporarily
git stash
git stash push -m "wip: half-done modal"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply latest stash (keeps it in stash list)
git stash apply

# Apply and remove from list
git stash pop

# Apply specific stash
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Drop a stash
git stash drop stash@{0}

Undoing Things

# Undo last commit, keep changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit, unstage changes (default)
git reset HEAD~1

# Discard uncommitted changes to a file
git checkout -- src/app/page.tsx
git restore src/app/page.tsx  # modern equivalent

# Discard all uncommitted changes
git restore .

# Revert a pushed commit (creates a new "undo" commit)
git revert abc1234

# Amend last commit message (only if not pushed yet)
git commit --amend -m "fix: correct typo in commit message"

Tags & Releases

# Create annotated tag (for releases)
git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release v1.0.0"
git push origin v1.0.0

# Push all tags
git push origin --tags

# List tags
git tag -l

# Delete a tag
git tag -d v1.0.0
git push origin --delete v1.0.0

# Create GitHub release from tag
gh release create v1.0.0 --title "v1.0.0" --notes "Initial release"

Log & History

# Pretty oneline log
git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

# Last 10 commits
git log -10 --oneline

# See who changed what line (blame)
git blame src/app/page.tsx

# Search commits by message
git log --grep="auth"

# Find commit that introduced a bug (binary search)
git bisect start
git bisect bad                  # current commit is broken
git bisect good v1.0.0          # known good state
# git tests each midpoint — mark good/bad until found
git bisect reset

GitHub Actions (CI)

Basic CI that runs lint + build on every PR:

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: npm

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: npm run build

.gitignore Essentials

# Dependencies
node_modules/

# Build output
.next/
dist/
out/

# Environment files
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

# OS
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# IDE
.vscode/
.idea/

# Logs
*.log
npm-debug.log*

# Solidity / Web3
artifacts/
cache/
typechain-types/