Quickstart Publish your first site with Claude Code

Step 3 · Just enough Git

Clone, fork or copy

To make your own version of a starter, you fork it or copy it into a repo of your own. Cloning is how the agent gets a working copy of that repo to edit.

Time: 5 min
On this page
  • Fork: your own copy of someone else's repo, on GitHub. It stays linked to the original.
  • Fresh copy: a brand-new repo of yours with the starter's files copied in. No link back, and its history starts fresh.
  • Clone: a working copy of a repo, on your computer or in the cloud. It stays linked to the repo it came from, so the agent can push its changes back.
Fork, fresh copy and clone At the top is the original repo on GitHub, fritzhand/history-of-tampa. An arrow labeled fork leads down to your fork on GitHub, which stays linked to the original. A second arrow, labeled fresh copy, leads to your new repo on GitHub, with the files copied in and no link back. From either of your repos, arrows labeled clone lead down to one working copy, on your computer or in the cloud. It is linked to your GitHub repo, and the agent edits there. The original, on GitHub fritzhand/history-of-tampa Fork Fresh copy Your fork on GitHub still linked to the original Your new repo on GitHub files copied in no link back Clone either one Working copy on your computer or in the cloud linked to your GitHub repo the agent edits here
Fork or copy the starter once to get a repo of your own. The agent then works in a clone of that repo.

Which one to use

GoodWatch out
ForkFastest: one prompt with the GitHub CLI, or two clicks on GitHub.A fork of a public repo is always public; you can't make it private. Commits in a fork don't count on your GitHub profile.
Fresh copyHow the real examples were made: history-of-indigo from history-of-tampa, and the Florida ecosystem map from startup-india-guide. You choose public or private, and your commits count on your profile.A few more steps, which the agent does for you.

A fork is fine for a first site. Make a fresh copy if you want your work to show on your GitHub profile.

The steps below use fritzhand/history-of-tampa, one long scrolling story that works for any history subject. For a multi-page site with a sidebar, on any subject, swap in fritzhand/startup-india-guide. Pick a starter compares them.

Fork a starter

Do this once. It covers step 1 of the step-by-step route in Make your own version. That page's faster one-prompt route starts from an empty repo instead, so don't fork if you plan to use it.

App path

  1. Fork it on GitHub

    Cloud sessions work only with repos that already exist, so this click is yours. Open https://github.com/fritzhand/history-of-tampa (opens in a new tab) and click Fork in the top-right corner. Type your-repo as the repository name, leave the other options as they are, and click Create fork.

  2. Open it in a new session

    Start a new session and pick your fork in the repository selector. If it isn't in the list, add it to the Claude GitHub App, as shown in Claude Code in the app.

VS Code path

Open your Projects folder in VS Code, then say:

Say this
Fork fritzhand/history-of-tampa into my account, with only the main branch, and name the fork your-repo. If you can't choose the fork's name, stop and tell me. Don't fork it under another name. Then clone it here.

Then open it yourself: File → Open Folder…, choose Projects/your-repo, and start a new conversation there. Now the agent works in your repo and reads its CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md when it starts.

Make a fresh copy

App path

  1. Create your repo

    Follow "Create a new repo" in Repos: public or private. The starter's files will replace its README.

  2. Start a session with both repos

    Select your repo and fritzhand/history-of-tampa, as shown in Many repos, one to work in.

  3. Ask for the copy

    Say this
    Work only in your-username/your-repo. Treat the other repos as read-only reference. Copy every file from fritzhand/history-of-tampa into my repo (not the .git folder), commit and push to main.

VS Code path

Open your Projects folder in VS Code, then say:

Say this
Create a new public GitHub repository called your-repo and clone it here. Copy every file from https://github.com/fritzhand/history-of-tampa into it (not the .git folder), commit and push to main.

Then open it yourself: File → Open Folder…, choose Projects/your-repo, and start a new conversation there. Now the agent works in your repo and reads its CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md when it starts.

Clone your repo

The steps above already give the agent a clone: on the app path, each session clones the repos you pick, and on the VS Code path, the prompts clone into Projects. To get your repo onto another computer, open that computer's Projects folder in VS Code and say:

Say this
Clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo into this folder.

Then open Projects/your-repo as above. Clone your own repo, not the original: the agent can't push to a repo that isn't yours.

If it goes wrong

The agent says it can't push

It's probably working in the original starter, which isn't yours. Tell it which repo to use:

Say this
Work only in your-username/your-repo. Treat the other repos as read-only reference.

On the app path, also check that the Claude GitHub App is installed on your repo. See Claude Code in the app.

GitHub says the name is already taken

You already have a repo with that name, maybe from an earlier fork. Use that repo, or pick a new name.

I forked, but I want my commits to count

Make a fresh copy under a new name, as above, and use that one from now on. You can delete the fork later.

What the agent runs for you 
# Fork with only the main branch, and clone the fork (GitHub CLI)
gh repo fork fritzhand/history-of-tampa --clone --default-branch-only --fork-name your-repo

# Fresh copy: make your repo, clone the starter next to it,
# then copy the starter's files without its .git folder
gh repo create your-repo --public --clone
git clone https://github.com/fritzhand/history-of-tampa
git -C history-of-tampa archive HEAD | tar -x -C your-repo
cd your-repo
git add .
git commit -m "Copy the history-of-tampa starter"
git push origin main

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git

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