Lesson 06 — Saving Your Work with Git 💾

Welcome back! In lessons/05-your-own-project.md you built a real thing from your own idea. You added style. You made it do something when you click. That is a lot.

Now let’s make sure you never lose any of it.

This lesson has one job: teach you how to save your work in a way that remembers everything and backs it up online. And the best part? You will do it by simply asking MILO.

What is git?

Think about a video game. When you reach a checkpoint, the game saves. If something goes wrong later, you go back to that checkpoint instead of starting over.

Git is a checkpoint system for your code.

Every time you save with git, it takes a snapshot of your files. It remembers:

  • what changed
  • when it changed
  • a short note about why

So git is not just a save button. It is a save button with a memory. You can look back at every checkpoint you ever made.

What is GitHub?

Git lives on your computer. But a computer can break, or get lost. That would be sad.

GitHub is a place on the internet that keeps a copy of your checkpoints.

Think of it like a cloud photo album. Your photos are on your phone, but a copy is safe online too. If your phone dies, the photos are still there.

GitHub does that for your code. It is also how people share projects. In fact, this whole learning repo lives on GitHub. You are already a collaborator on it, which is a fancy word for "someone who is allowed to help."

Word Everyday meaning
git A save button that remembers every save
GitHub A safe copy of your saves, online, that others can see
repo A project folder that git is watching (short for "repository")
collaborator A person who is allowed to add to a repo

There is more on these words in glossary.md whenever you want a refresher.

The three little steps (so you know what is happening)

When you save work with git, three small things happen in order. You do not need to memorize the commands. But it helps to know the names, so when MILO explains it, the words feel friendly.

  1. Add — you pick which changed files to include in this snapshot. Like choosing which photos go in the album.
  2. Commit — you take the snapshot and write a short note about it. Like pressing save and giving it a title.
  3. Push — you send the snapshot up to GitHub. Like syncing your album to the cloud.

Add, commit, push. That is the whole trip.

The easy, safe way: just ask MILO 🌟

Here is the good news. You do not have to memorize those commands. Because you are working inside Claude Code — or another assistant that can run commands in this folder — you can just ask, in plain words, and MILO will do the three steps for you.

Tool note — this is a Claude Code feature. Asking MILO to add, commit, and push only works when the assistant can run commands on your computer. Claude Code can. Many other coding assistants can too. A free chat cannot. If that is you, type these three lines yourself in a terminal, from your project folder, and paste any error back into the chat:

git add .
git commit -m "Describe what you changed"
git push

The first time, Git may ask for your name and email, and GitHub may ask you to sign in. That is normal. The idea of the lesson stays the same: a named snapshot, then a copy online. The full fallback is in README.md.

Open Claude Code (or your coding assistant) in your project and paste this:

Please save my work with git.

Before you do anything, explain in simple words what you are about to
do, step by step. Then show me which files changed. Then add, commit,
and push my work to GitHub. Use a short, clear commit message that
describes what I changed today.

That is it. MILO will walk through add, commit, and push, and tell you what each step did.

Safety first: MILO explains before it acts 🛡️

This part is important, so read it slowly.

MILO will tell you what it is about to do before it does it. You are always in control. If anything looks confusing, you do not have to say yes.

A good habit is to ask MILO to pause and explain. Try this if you ever feel unsure:

Wait, before you save anything, list every file that changed and tell
me in one sentence what each change does. Do not push yet. I will tell
you when I am ready.

Git almost never loses work. Because it remembers every checkpoint, mistakes are easy to undo. But going slowly and understanding each step is how you build real confidence. There is no rush.

Do it now ✅

Let’s actually save today’s work.

  1. Make sure you have made at least one small change to your project (even fixing a typo counts).
  2. Paste the first prompt above into your assistant. If you are typing the git commands yourself, run the three lines from the tool note above, then continue.
  3. Read MILO’s explanation of the three steps as it goes.
  4. When it finishes, MILO will tell you the push succeeded.

Want to see the proof? Ask MILO:

Give me the link to my project on GitHub so I can see my saved work
in the browser.

Open that link. Your files are there, on the internet, backed up and safe.

Optional: turn on the little “Verified” checkmark

Here’s a small pro move you can turn on now. GitHub can put a green Verified badge next to your saves, which just means “this save really came from your account.” It’s nice to have, and from Level 4 on, your Forge work should show it. Ask MILO:

Help me turn on signed commits for my GitHub account, one step at a time —
explain what signing means in plain words first, then walk me through the
setup and check it worked with a test commit.

One honest note so you’re never confused later: that checkmark proves a save came from your account — it does not prove you wrote the code (you could sign code an AI wrote). It’s good hygiene, not a lie detector. Later, in The Forge, what proves the work is yours is being able to explain and change it live — never the badge alone. For now, just enjoy the checkmark. ✅

🎉 Milestone: your work is saved on GitHub

Stop and feel this for a second.

Your code is no longer only on your computer. It has checkpoints that remember its history, and a safe copy online that will not disappear. That is exactly how professional developers protect their work every single day.

You now know how to keep everything you build. That changes everything.

What’s next

You can build, and you can save. Now for something surprising: you can help make a real app better, even before you write a single new feature.

You are going to practice a real skill on a public app called GetAdvice: use it, write down what you find, and review your own note. Doing that well is a genuine skill, and it is your next lesson.

➡️ Continue to lessons/07-giving-good-feedback.md.