The problem

You spent an hour with Claude Code or Cursor. You've got a site, a tool, an app running on your screen. You're happy. But it only runs on your machine. Nobody else can see it.

To put it online, everyone says the same thing: "push to GitHub". And that's where you zone out. Not because it's hard. Because nobody ever explained what it is.

GitHub is the piece that connects your AI to the live web. Without it, your project stays a prototype on your computer. With it, it becomes a site, a tool, a product accessible by anyone.

This article explains the 5 concepts you need to know. No more.

Who is this article for?

• You use Claude Code, Cursor, or another AI tool to generate code
• You have a project running locally and want to put it online
• You're not a dev and you've never used GitHub

If you're a developer, you won't learn anything here. That's the point.

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a place where you store your project and track every change. That's it.

Think of Google Docs. You write something, someone edits it, you see the change history, you can roll back. GitHub does the same thing, but for all your project files: code, images, configuration, content.

The difference with Google Docs: on GitHub, every change is explicit. You don't save continuously. You decide when to make a checkpoint, describe what you changed, and save it. It's more structured, and that's exactly what makes it powerful.

The other major difference: GitHub connects to deployment tools like Vercel. You push your project to GitHub, Vercel detects it and puts it online automatically. That's the pipeline I described in my first article.

The 5 concepts you need

Everything about GitHub fits in 5 words. With these, you understand what's happening when Claude Code says "I'm pushing to GitHub".

1. The repo

A repo (repository) is a project folder on GitHub. Your website, your internal tool, your app: each one has its repo. Everything lives inside: the code your AI generated, images, text, configuration.

When you start a project with Claude Code, the first thing to do is create a repo. It's the foundation. No repo, no backup, no deployment.

2. The commit

A commit is a save point. You asked Claude to modify the homepage, you like the result, you commit. It's a snapshot of your project at that moment, with a message describing the change.

Concrete examples:

• "Add pricing page"
• "Fix broken link in footer"
• "Rewrite homepage copy"

The commit history is the project's memory. Who changed what, when, and why. And most importantly: if Claude breaks something (it happens), you go back to a previous commit in one command. It's your safety net.

3. The branch

A branch is a parallel copy of the project where you can work without touching the live version.

Your site is in production, it's live, everything is fine. You want to add a "customer testimonials" section. You create a branch, work on it with Claude, test it. If it's good, you integrate it. If it's a mess, you delete the branch. The live site never moved.

The official version is the main branch. Everything else is work in progress.

4. The Pull Request (PR)

A Pull Request is a request to integrate your changes into the main version. You've worked in your branch, you're happy with the result, you open a PR.

The PR shows exactly what changed: lines added in green, lines removed in red. It's a validation step before going live.

When you work solo, the PR might seem unnecessary. But it has a concrete advantage: tools like Vercel generate a preview URL for each PR. You see exactly the result before touching the production site.

5. The merge

Merging means applying changes from your branch into main. Once your PR is validated, you merge, and your changes are in production.

If your repo is connected to Vercel, the merge automatically triggers a deployment. You merge, the site updates. That's the whole pipeline.

In practice, with Claude Code

You don't need to remember commands. Claude Code handles all of this for you. Here's what a typical session looks like:

1. You tell Claude: "create a branch and add a contact page"
2. Claude creates the branch, writes the code, shows you the result
3. You approve, you tell it "commit and push"
4. Claude makes the commit with a clear message, pushes to GitHub
5. You open the PR on GitHub (or ask Claude to do it)
6. You check the Vercel preview
7. You merge, it's live

The complete workflow, from idea to updated site, without typing a single Git command.

Why it's essential

Without GitHub, every AI project is a disposable draft. You generate, you lose, you start over. No history, no rollback, no deployment.

With GitHub, your project has memory, a safety net, and a path to production. It's the difference between "it works on my machine" and "here, click this link".

You don't need to master Git on the command line. You don't need to understand rebase or cherry-pick. You need to understand repo, commit, branch, PR, merge. Five words. And now you know them.