Importing your source code to GitHub makes it easier for you and others to work together on projects and manage code. GitHub helps you collaborate, track changes, and organize tasks, making it simpler to build and manage projects. For more information, see About GitHub and Git.
Warning
Never git add, commit, or push sensitive information, for example passwords or API keys, to a remote repository. If you've already added this information, see Removing sensitive data from a repository.
Adding existing source code to GitHub
If you have source code stored locally on your computer that is tracked by Git or not tracked by any version control system (VCS), you can add the code to GitHub by typing commands in a terminal. You can do this by typing Git commands directly. Alternatively, you can use GitHub CLI or GitHub Desktop.
Using GitHub CLI
GitHub CLI is an open source tool for using GitHub from your computer's command line. GitHub CLI can simplify the process of adding an existing project to GitHub using the command line. To learn more about GitHub CLI, see About GitHub CLI.
Using GitHub Desktop
If you're most comfortable with a point-and-click user interface, consider adding your project with GitHub Desktop instead. For more information, see Adding a repository from your local computer to GitHub Desktop.
Converting repositories from other VCS
If your source code is tracked by a different VCS, such as Mercurial, Subversion, or Team Foundation Version Control, you must convert the repository to Git before you can add the project to GitHub.
Importing a Subversion repository
Importing a Mercurial repository
Importing a Team Foundation Version Control repository
Initializing a Git repository
If your locally-hosted code isn't tracked by any VCS, the first step is to initialize a Git repository. If your project is already tracked by Git, skip to Importing a Git repository with the command line.
Open Terminal.
Navigate to the root directory of your project.
Initialize the local directory as a Git repository. By default, the initial branch is called main.
If you’re using Git 2.28.0 or a later version, you can set the name of the default branch using -b.
git init -b main
If you’re using Git 2.27.1 or an earlier version, you can set the name of the default branch using git symbolic-ref.
git init && git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/main
Add the files in your new local repository. This stages them for the first commit.
$ git add .
# Adds the files in the local repository and stages them for commit. To unstage a file, use 'git reset HEAD YOUR-FILE'.
Commit the files that you've staged in your local repository.
$ git commit -m "First commit"
# Commits the tracked changes and prepares them to be pushed to a remote repository. To remove this commit and modify the file, use 'git reset --soft HEAD~1' and commit and add the file again.
Importing a Git repository with the command line
After you've initialized a Git repository, you can push the repository to GitHub, using either GitHub CLI or Git.
Adding a local repository to GitHub with GitHub CLI
Adding a local repository to GitHub using Git
Adding a local repository to GitHub with GitHub CLI
To create a repository for your project on GitHub, use the gh repo create subcommand. When prompted, select Push an existing local repository to GitHub and enter the desired name for your repository. If you want your project to belong to an organization instead of your user account, specify the organization name and project name with ORGANIZATION-NAME/PROJECT-NAME.
Follow the interactive prompts. To add the remote and push the repository, confirm yes when asked to add the remote and push the commits to the current branch.
Alternatively, to skip all the prompts, supply the path to the repository with the --source flag and pass a visibility flag (--public, --private, or --internal). For example, gh repo create --source=. --public. Specify a remote with the --remote flag. To push your commits, pass the --push flag. For more information about possible arguments, see the GitHub CLI manual.
Adding a local repository to GitHub using Git
Before you can add your local repository to GitHub using Git, you must authenticate to GitHub on the command line. For more information, see About authentication to GitHub.
Create a new repository on GitHub. To avoid errors, do not initialize the new repository with README, license, or gitignore files. You can add these files after your project has been pushed to GitHub. For more information, see Creating a new repository.
At the top of your repository on GitHub's Quick Setup page, click
to copy the remote repository URL.
Screenshot of the "Quick Setup" header in a repository. Next to the remote URL, an icon of two overlapping squares is outlined in orange.
Open Terminal.
Change the current working directory to your local project.
To add the URL for the remote repository where your local repository will be pushed, run the following command. Replace REMOTE-URL with the repository's full URL on GitHub.
git remote add origin REMOTE-URL
For more information, see Managing remote repositories.
To verify that you set the remote URL correctly, run the following command.
git remote -v
To push the changes in your local repository to GitHub, run the following command.
git push origin main
If your default branch is not named "main," replace "main" with the name of your default branch. For more information, see About branches.