Get Your Project Ready for Git

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

What you'll walk away with

Understand getting your project ready for Git without the fear factor
Get hands-on and try it yourself
Learn to spot (and smile past) the common mistakes

Once your mini app is working, inspect the project folder, start a Git repository, and make sure everything's in order before your first snapshot.

Let's think about it this way for a sec

It matters more to prove your project actually works locally and understand its files than to rush it onto GitHub right away. Git doesn't automatically save your entire folder. git init starts a repository, and git status shows you what's changed. Before committing, run, test, or build the app, and sort out generated files, secrets, and unnecessary downloads.

Connecting it to everyday life

Go into your Quick Notes project folder and try running install and test/build once. Then run git init and git status. For each file in the status output, ask yourself: 'did I write this, did a tool generate it, does it contain a secret?' Don't run git add . at this stage yet — first sort out what should be saved from what shouldn't.

You're in the correct project folder
The app runs or builds successfully
You understand the file types shown in git status
Secrets and generated files are sorted out

Let's try it together

bash

cd quick-notes
npm install
npm run build

git init
git status

You should see

You'll start a local Git repository and know how to check the project's state with git status before committing.

5-Minute Try-It

Run git init and git status on your own project. Sort the files that show up into four groups: source, config, generated, and secret.

A Quick Word of Caution

Never treat AI output as automatically correct. Have a human read through the code and test it — and double-check secrets and user data — before you rely on it.

Easy traps

Running git init in the wrong parent folder
Making the first commit before the app actually works
Staging every file without reading git status first

Now Try It Yourself

Run git init and git status on your own project. Sort the files that show up into four groups: source, config, generated, and secret.

You'll know it worked when: You'll start a local Git repository and know how to check the project's state with git status before committing.