# GitHub in Plain English You built an app in Lovable, Bolt, or Replit. Someone said "you should connect it to GitHub" and walked away. This file is the missing explanation: what GitHub actually is, why you want it even though you don't code, and the exact clicks to set it up. Menus and button names below are accurate as of July 2026. These tools redesign constantly. If a button isn't where I say it is, it moved, it didn't disappear; I'll tell you what to look for instead. --- ## 1. What a repo actually is A repo (short for repository, GitHub's word for a project folder with a memory) is just a folder that contains your app's files, plus a complete history of every saved version of every file. That's it. Not a program, not a server, not something that runs your app. A folder that remembers. Every time you (or your AI) save a snapshot of the folder, that snapshot is called a commit (one saved version, with a one-line note about what changed). The full stack of commits is the memory. You can scroll back through it and restore any previous version, forever. Two copies exist: - **The local repo:** the folder on a computer (yours, or Lovable's servers). - **The remote repo:** the copy on GitHub's servers. Sending your latest commits up to GitHub is called a push. GitHub is the company that hosts the remote copies. Free for what you need. Owned by Microsoft, used by roughly every software team on earth, extremely unlikely to vanish. ## 2. Why you, a non-coder, want one Three reasons, in order of how much they matter: **1. An undo button for your entire app.** Not undo-the-last-keystroke. Undo as in "the app worked on Tuesday, the AI mangled it on Wednesday, put Tuesday back." Without a repo, a bad AI session can genuinely destroy work. With one, nothing that was ever committed can be lost. This is the whole point, and it's why this kit's page says you cannot really break a project that's on GitHub. **2. Most tools require it.** Hosting (Vercel, Netlify), coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor), automation (GitHub Actions), collaborators: they all plug into a GitHub repo, not into your Lovable account. GitHub is the standard socket everything else plugs into. **3. Your escape hatch.** Right now your app lives inside one company's product. If Lovable raises prices, gets acquired, or shuts down, an app that exists only in Lovable goes with it. An app that's synced to GitHub is yours: any other tool, or any AI, can pick it up and keep going. You are one push away from not being locked in. ## 3. Set up your account (5 minutes, free) 1. Go to **github.com** and click **Sign up**. 2. Use an email you'll keep forever, not a work address you might lose. Your username is public and appears in your repo links, so pick something you'd put on a business card. 3. Verify the email, complete the puzzle, done. The **Free plan is enough**; it includes unlimited private repos (repos only you can see). Do not pay for anything today. 4. When you create your first repo, keep it **Private** unless you specifically want strangers reading your code. You can flip it later in the repo's Settings. ## 4. Install GitHub Desktop (the no-terminal way in) GitHub Desktop is a free point-and-click app that does the git stuff (git is the underlying version-control program GitHub is built on) so you never touch a terminal. 1. Download from **desktop.github.com** (Mac and Windows). 2. Open it, choose **Sign in to GitHub.com**, and approve in the browser window that pops up. 3. Leave the settings on their defaults. To get a repo from GitHub onto your computer, use **File > Clone Repository** (clone means download your own full copy, history included), pick the repo, click **Clone**. Now the app's files are in a normal folder on your machine, and GitHub Desktop watches that folder for changes. The four moves you'll do in this app (save, undo, branch, share) are in the companion file `four-moves.md`. This file is just about getting connected. ## 5. Connect your builder to GitHub Pick your tool. Each of these takes under 5 minutes. In every case, the builder keeps working exactly as before; it just also syncs every change to a repo you own. ### Lovable 1. Open your project in Lovable. 2. Click the **GitHub** button in the top-right area of the editor (if it moved, look for **GitHub** under the project's **Settings**, or a **Connect to GitHub** option in the top-right project menu). 3. Click **Connect to GitHub** and approve the authorization screen GitHub shows you (this is you giving Lovable permission to write to your account). 4. Choose your personal account when it asks where to install, then click **Create Repository**. 5. Done. Lovable now pushes every edit it makes to that repo automatically. The sync is two-way: changes pushed to GitHub from elsewhere show up in Lovable too. ### Bolt 1. Open your project at bolt.new. 2. Look for the **GitHub** button in the top toolbar of the editor (if it moved, look for **Connect to GitHub** or an **Export** option near the project name). 3. Authorize Bolt on the GitHub screen that opens. 4. Name the repo and confirm. Bolt pushes your project's current state to it. In Bolt, pushing updates after that may be a button press rather than automatic, so after any session you care about, press it. ### Replit 1. Open your Repl (Replit's word for a project). 2. Open the **Tools** section in the left sidebar and choose **Git** (if it moved, look for **Git** or **Version control** in the tools/search area of the workspace). 3. In the Git pane, choose **Connect to GitHub**, authorize, and create a new repo when prompted. 4. The Git pane now shows a **Commit and push** flow: type a one-line note, click the button, your code is on GitHub. ### Claude Code Claude Code is different: it's an AI that works on a folder on your computer, and it speaks git natively. You don't configure a connection, you just ask. With your project folder open, say: > Set up version control for this project. Initialize git if needed, create a private GitHub repo for it under my account, connect the two, and push everything. If I'm not authenticated with GitHub yet, walk me through logging in one step at a time and wait for me after each step. When you're done, tell me the repo's web address. It will handle everything, including installing or authenticating the GitHub tooling, and it will pause to walk you through the one browser login it can't do for you. ## 6. How you know it worked Go to **github.com**, click your profile picture (top right), then **Your repositories**. Your project should be listed. Click it: you should see your app's files and, under the green **Code** button area, a line like "42 commits". That number is your app's memory. From now on, it only grows. --- Stuck anywhere in this file? Paste the section you're stuck on into Claude or ChatGPT and say: "I'm following this guide and I'm stuck at this step. Here's what I see on my screen instead. Get me through it one step at a time." Screenshots help.