0. Before the Workshop

The workshop is two hours of hands-on work, so there is no time to install software during it. Do this beforehand. It takes about 20 minutes, and at the end there is a checklist to confirm you are ready.

1. A GitHub account¶

Sign up at https://github.com/signup. Choose your username carefully: it appears in all your URLs, and you will type it many times today.

GitHub may ask you to turn on two-factor authentication (2FA). Do it now with an authenticator app, rather than being locked out halfway through the workshop.

2. Install Git¶

sudo apt update && sudo apt install git

Check it works. You need version 2.28 or newer:

git --version

3. Tell Git who you are¶

Every commit records an author. Run these once, with your name and the email of your GitHub account:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

# Name the first branch "main", like GitHub does
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
# Make "git pull" merge, so it never stops to ask how
git config --global pull.rebase false

If you use VS Code, make it Git’s editor too, instead of the default vim, which can be hard to exit:

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

4. Let Git sign in to GitHub¶

GitHub does not accept your password from the terminal. The simplest way to sign in is the GitHub CLI:

1. Install it from https://cli.github.com (Windows: run the installer; macOS: brew install gh; Linux: see the instructions on that page).

2. Run:

   gh auth login

   Answer: GitHub.com, then HTTPS, then Yes to “Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials”, then Login with a web browser. Copy the one-time code and paste it into the page that opens.

3. Check:

   gh auth status

5. A code editor¶

Any editor works. VS Code is a good choice: it shows Git changes and helps you resolve merge conflicts with one click.

6. Optional: Python and Docker¶

You can complete the whole workshop without these, because GitHub runs the tests and builds the Docker image for you in the cloud. Install them if you also want to run the app on your own machine.

• Python 3.10 or newer, from https://www.python.org/downloads/, to run the app and its tests locally.

• Docker Desktop, from https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/, to run containers locally in Part 3. Check it with:

  docker run hello-world

✅ Ready? Check every line¶

• I can sign in at https://github.com, and I know my username.

• git --version prints 2.28 or newer.

• git config --global user.email prints the email of my GitHub account.

• gh auth status says I am logged in (or I am on Windows and will use Git Credential Manager).

• I know how to open a terminal (Git Bash on Windows) and an editor.

• Optional: docker run hello-world prints “Hello from Docker!”.

If a line fails, ask in the workshop chat before the session starts.