Quickstart Publish your first site with Claude Code

Step 1 · GitHub

Create your GitHub account

GitHub holds your site's files and publishes the site. Creating the account is one of the few steps no agent can do for you.

Time: 10 min
On this page

A free account is all you need. Once the agent is connected to your account, it does almost all the GitHub work. The main exception is turning on GitHub Pages in your repo's settings, which you'll click yourself in Step 5.

Set up your account

  1. Sign up

    Go to https://github.com/signup (opens in a new tab) and follow the prompts. You can also sign up with your Google or Apple account.

  2. Choose a short username

    Your username becomes part of your site's address: https://your-username.github.io/. Keep it short and lowercase, since you'll share it in every link. Changing it later breaks old links, so pick one you'll keep.

  3. Verify your email

    GitHub asks you to verify your email address during sign-up. Do it right away. Until you do, you can't create or fork a repository, which this guide needs.

  4. Turn on two-factor authentication

    Recommended. It stops anyone who learns your password from getting in. Click your profile picture, then Settings → Password and authentication → Enable two-factor authentication. Use an authenticator app on your phone. Setting it up on the same phone as the app? You can't scan the QR code, so click setup key and type that code into the app instead. When GitHub shows your recovery codes, download them and keep them somewhere safe.

  5. Keep your email private and copy your noreply address

    Click your profile picture, then Settings → Emails. Tick Keep my email addresses private. GitHub then shows a private address that looks like this:

    ID+your-username@users.noreply.github.com

    Copy it. You'll give it to the agent so your commits are credited to you, without putting your real email in your site's public history. Commit as yourself shows how.

  6. Save your details in this guide

    Save your details here once; every prompt in this guide fills them in.

    The name in your GitHub profile address, github.com/your-username.

    What you’ll call the repo for your site, in lowercase with hyphens, such as history-of-st-pete. It becomes part of your site’s address. You can change it here later.

    Shown as the author of your commits.

    On GitHub, open Settings → Emails and check Keep my email addresses private. GitHub then shows your address ending in @users.noreply.github.com.

    Saved only in this browser.

If it goes wrong

The username I want is taken

Add a number or a hyphen, or try another spelling. Keep it lowercase.

GitHub won't let me create or fork a repository

Your email probably isn't verified yet. Open Settings → Emails and click Resend verification email under your address. Then click the link in the email GitHub sends. Check your spam folder if it doesn't arrive. Throwaway email addresses can't be verified, so use a real one.

Saved only in this browser.