GitHub, in Plain English
Your setup guide. You do not need to code. If you can set up a Google account, you can do this.
"Everyone building with AI keeps saying GitHub."
I run a business, I do not write code, and I am in GitHub every week. Here is the whole thing in plain English: how to set it up, how to connect it to Claude, and the handful of words you will actually hear.
Make your GitHub account
Go to github.com and click Sign up. Pick a username, enter your email, choose a password, and verify the email. Nothing to install.
Optional: click the green New button to create your first repo (your first project folder). You can skip this for now and come back to it.
Connect it to Claude, two ways
The easy way (let Claude read your repo): open a Claude chat, click the + on the message box, choose Add from GitHub, and pick the repo or files you want. This is how I use it as a knowledge base.
The builder way (let Claude work in your code): go to claude.ai/code, sign in with your GitHub account, pick a repo, and give it a task.
Want Claude to create the repo for you?
You do not even have to make the repo yourself. In claude.ai/code, signed in with GitHub, just ask: "Create a new repo for this project and push it up." It sets everything up, and you approve each step along the way.
The words you will hear
Repo: the folder for one project.
Commit: save a snapshot, with a little note about what changed.
Push: send that snapshot up to the cloud.
Clone: copy a project down to your own computer.
Fork: your own copy of someone else's repo, so you can build on it without touching theirs.
One setting to know when you make a repo: Public means anyone can find it, Private means just you and who you invite. Not sharing it with the world? Choose Private. You can change it later.
Bonus: share your team's AI skills from one place
Once you are comfortable, a repo is also where a team can store its custom Claude skills, so everyone loads the exact same ones instead of reinventing them. One source of truth. That is the real unlock for a business.
You do not have to become a coder.
If you want help putting AI to work in your business, an AI Opportunity Audit is the fastest way in.
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