Skip to content

Operations · Tools

Last Updated: July 31, 2026

GitHub Basics

This page gets you a GitHub account, installs the one program Claude Code needs, and explains the few ideas you'll actually use. No coding, and nothing here assumes you've done it before.

What GitHub is

Think of GitHub as file storage.

It holds Tierra's projects online where everyone can reach them. You download a copy to your own computer, change what you need to, then upload the changed files back. Everyone works from the same shared copy, so your changes reach the rest of the team and any live website built from those files.

Two other things make it worth using. It keeps a history of every change, so nothing is ever really lost and you can always see what changed and who changed it. And it lets several people work on the same project without stepping on each other, as long as you follow one habit, covered at the bottom of this page.

A "project" here means a set of files that belong together, like the audit tool or a client's audit pages. You'll also hear these called repos, short for repositories. Same thing.

You almost never click around GitHub itself. In practice you reach these projects through Claude Code and describe what you want in plain English. What you need from this page is an account, one install, and a few words explained.

Step 1 — Install Git

Git is the program that does the actual downloading and uploading. It sits quietly on your computer and Claude Code uses it in the background. Claude Code can't open or save a project without it, so this is the one thing you install by hand.

  • On Windows: go to git-scm.com/downloads/win, download the installer, click Next through every screen with the default choices, then Finish.
  • On a Mac: some Macs already have it, many don't, so don't assume. Go to git-scm.com/downloads/mac and follow the download there. If you already had it, the installer will tell you.

You never open Git yourself

Installing Git also installs something called Git Bash, a black window that takes typed commands. You don't need it and you shouldn't use it. Everything happens through the Claude Code chat. If you end up typing into a black window, go back to Claude.

Confirm it's installed and current

Once Claude Code is open (see Claude Code 101), paste this into the chat:

Check whether Git is installed on my computer, tell me the version, and whether it's up to date. If it's missing or out of date, install or update it and let me know when you're done.

Step 2 — Create your account

  1. Go to github.com and click Sign up.
  2. Use your Tierra email, and finish the email verification.
  3. Find your username. It's the name in your profile link, github.com/YOUR-USERNAME.
  4. Send your GS your username so you can be added to Tierra's projects.

Step 3 — Get access to Tierra's projects

You don't create Tierra's projects, and you don't make your own copy of them. You get added to the shared ones.

There are two levels of access, and the difference catches people out.

Reading is automatic. Everyone in Tierra's GitHub organisation can read every project, by design, and you're added to the organisation when you get your Tierra Claude account. So you can always look, download a copy, and work on it.

Saving your changes back is separate, and has to be given to you by name on each project. Ask your GS to confirm you have it before you start on something, not after.

That order matters more than it sounds. With read-only access everything works: you download the project, make your change, and Claude shows you it's done. It only refuses at the very last step, when you try to save it back to the shared copy. Someone here lost an hour's work that way. Thirty seconds of checking up front avoids it.

If you're new, you'll get an invitation email from GitHub. Open it and click Accept. If Claude says it can't reach a project at all, that's more often a sign-in problem than a permissions one, so see Troubleshooting below.

Why you use the shared copy instead of your own

Changes made in the shared copy reach the whole team and any live website. A personal copy would be cut off from everyone else's work, and nobody would see what you did.

Seeing a project at an address you don't recognise?

Tierra's projects all moved into one shared home on GitHub, the Tierra-Agency account, in July 2026. Some of them now show a different address than they used to. There's nothing for you to redo. GitHub forwards the old address permanently, so a copy already on your computer keeps working exactly as it did.

The words worth knowing

Claude Code handles all of this for you. These four come up in conversation and you'll type them into the chat, so they're worth recognising.

Cloning means downloading a copy of a project onto your own computer, so you have files you can actually change. You do it once per project.

Pulling, or "getting the latest", means refreshing your copy with everyone else's recent changes. Do it every time before you start working, so you're never building on an out-of-date version. You just say: "Pull the latest changes before we start."

Committing and pushing means uploading your changes back to the shared copy so the rest of the team, and any live website, gets them. You say "commit and push" once a change looks right. Committing is the save, pushing is the upload, and they almost always happen together.

A diff is the difference between the old version of a file and the new one. Claude shows you a diff before it saves anything, so you can check the change is what you asked for. Read it rather than waving it through.

That's the whole loop: get the latest, make a change with Claude, save it back.

Every saved change carries a name, so the history always shows who did what. Normally that's your own GitHub name and there's nothing to set up. The audit tool is the one exception at Tierra, and its page explains it in Whose name your changes save under.

The one habit that prevents lost work

Don't both edit the same thing at once

GitHub is good at keeping separate work separate. But if two people change the SAME file at the same time, one person's changes can get overwritten. Get the latest before you start, and check nobody else is in the file. Each tool's page spells out its own version of this rule.

Troubleshooting

Find your symptom below. If none of these match, send your GS a screenshot of exactly where you're stuck. Don't guess past an error.

GitHub asks me to sign in over and over, or a download won't start.

  • Sign in to GitHub once when Claude Code prompts you, and let it finish. If it keeps looping, close Claude Code completely and reopen it, then try again.

Claude says it can't find a project, or that I don't have access to it.

  • Check this in order before assuming you've been left out. First, open the project's GitHub page in your browser. If it loads, you have access and this is a sign-in problem, not a permissions one. Second, in the Claude app click Customize, then Connectors, and check GitHub is connected. Third, paste the project's web address into the chat and tell Claude you have access to it. If it still can't reach it, send your GS a screenshot.

Claude says the push was rejected, or that I need to pull first.

  • Someone else saved a change before you. Tell Claude "pull the latest changes, then commit and push again." That merges their work in and sends yours up.

Claude says the push was denied, or asks me to grant this machine write access.

  • You have read-only access to that project, which lets you do everything except the final save. Your work isn't lost, it's still on your computer. Ask your GS for write access on the project, then tell Claude to push again. Worth confirming access before you start next time, since this only shows up at the very end.

Two of us edited the same file and something looks wrong.

  • Stop, and send your GS a screenshot before saving anything else. Guessing at a tangled file usually makes it worse. Going forward, always get the latest before you start, and check nobody else is in the file.