This course covered the entire day-to-day loop — init, add, commit, branch, merge, resolve conflicts, undo mistakes, push, pull, fork, and open a pull request — plus enough of the wider landscape (other hosts, other version control systems entirely) to recognize what else is out there.
| Habit | From |
|---|---|
| Commit in small, logical steps with a clear message | Git Workflows |
| Never track secrets or dependencies | The .gitignore File |
| Branch for every real change, however small | Branching Basics |
| Never reset or rebase a commit already shared with others | Undoing Changes, Rebasing vs. Merging |
| Write a README a stranger could actually follow | Writing a Good README |
The Hosting & Deployment course connects a server to a GitHub repository directly — pushing a commit there triggers an actual deployment, the practical payoff of everything in this course. The Career Skills course covers building a real GitHub profile as portfolio proof — the public repositories, README quality, and commit history from this course are exactly what that's built from.
| Topic | Why it was left out |
|---|---|
| Git hooks (running a script automatically on commit/push) | A genuinely advanced customization, rarely needed starting out |
| Submodules (a repository nested inside another) | A niche need, and a famously confusing feature even for experienced developers |
| GitHub Actions (automated workflows on push/PR) | A real, valuable topic, but its own course-worth of material — CI/CD generally |
| Signed commits (cryptographically verifying who committed) | Security-hardening territory, rarely needed for a student or freelancer's day-to-day |
What to actually do next
The single most valuable next step: pick a real project — even a small personal one — put it on GitHub, and use everything from this course on it for a few weeks. Reading about branching is nothing like the moment a real merge conflict actually happens and gets resolved.