The main branch

A branch is a parallel line of work in the same repo. You can make changes on a branch without touching the main line. main is the line GitHub Pages publishes from, so your site updates only when main changes.

Make sure it's called main

Repos you create on GitHub, and forks of the starters, already use main. On the VS Code path, Git, Node & GitHub CLI set your computer to use main for new repos too. If you ever have the agent start a repo from scratch, name the folder and the branch:

In the your-repo folder, start a new git repository on a branch named main.

The app path: Claude's own branch

In the Claude app, Claude works on its own branch, named claude/…, and pushes that branch, not main. Your site doesn't change until the work is merged into main.

Two ways to get work onto main

Straight to main

The simplest way for a project only you work on. Say it with the task, or at the start of the session:

Commit and push to main.

Through a pull request

Let Claude push its claude/… branch, then say:

Open a pull request from your branch into main of your-username/your-repo (my repo, not the original) and merge it.

Or open the diff view, the panel that shows what Claude changed, and select Create PR at the top. Then open the pull request on GitHub, click Merge pull request, then Confirm merge.

On the VS Code path the agent usually works on main already, so "Commit and push to main." is all you need.

If it goes wrong

Push your branch, then open a pull request from it into main of your-username/your-repo (my repo, not the original) and merge it.

Which branch is my work on? Get it onto main and push main.

# A new repo that starts on main
git init -b main
git config --global init.defaultBranch main   # every new repo from now on

# Pull request, then merge (GitHub CLI). Naming the repo keeps a fork's
# pull request out of the original repo.
gh pr create --repo your-username/your-repo --base main --fill
gh pr merge branch-name --repo your-username/your-repo --merge