Get Your GitHub Account Started: A Step-by-Step Beginner Developer Guide

Creating a GitHub account is the first rite of passage for every modern programmer.

However, many beginner tutorials stop after showing you how to click “Sign Up” on the website. Then, the moment you open your terminal to push your code, you hit frustrating authentication errors: Permission denied (publickey) or Support for password authentication was removed.

In this guide, we walk through setting up your GitHub account properly from day one, including global Git credentials, SSH keys, and pushing your first project.

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Step 1: Create Your GitHub Account

1. Head to github.com and click Sign up.
2. Enter your email, create a strong password, and choose a professional username (this will form your portfolio URL: github.com/your-username).
3. Complete the puzzle verification and confirm your email address.

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Step 2: Configure Your Local Git Profile

Open your terminal (Terminal on Mac/Linux, or Git Bash on Windows) and tell Git who you are. This information attaches to every commit you make:

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

Verify your configuration:

git config --list

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Step 3: Setting Up SSH Authentication (No More Passwords!)

GitHub no longer accepts account passwords when pushing code via the command line. Instead, use an SSH key for passwordless, secure authentication.

1. Generate a New SSH Key

Run this command in terminal (press Enter to accept default file location and add an optional passphrase):

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your-github-email@example.com"

2. Copy Your Public Key to Clipboard

• macOS:

  pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

• Linux:

  cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

• Windows (Git Bash):

  clip < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

3. Add Key to GitHub:

1. In GitHub, click your profile picture (top right) → Settings.
2. In the left sidebar, select SSH and GPG keys.
3. Click New SSH key.
4. Give it a Title (e.g., MacBook Pro M3) and paste your key into the Key field.
5. Click Add SSH key.

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Step 4: Create and Push Your First Repository

Now let’s take a local project folder and push it to GitHub:

1. On GitHub, click the + icon (top right) → New repository.
2. Enter a Repository name (e.g., my-first-website).
3. Set visibility to Public (visible to all) or Private (only you and invited collaborators).
4. Leave Add a README unchecked for now. Click Create repository.

In your local project folder in terminal, run:

# 1. Initialize git in your project
git init

# 2. Add your files and commit
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

# 3. Set main branch
git branch -M main

# 4. Link to GitHub (use your SSH URL)
git remote add origin git@github.com:your-username/my-first-website.git

# 5. Push code to GitHub
git push -u origin main

Refresh your GitHub browser page, and your code and commit history will be live online!

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Summary

Setting up SSH keys and a clean Git profile takes 5 minutes and permanently eliminates terminal password prompts.

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