Never Lose Your Vibe Coding Progress Again With Git

Go to git-scm.com.

• On Windows, download the installer.
• On Mac, follow the instructions to install Git with Homebrew.

Homebrew and Git are both safe, open source libraries that have been around for decades.

Verify the installation by pasting this into your terminal and pressing return:

git --version

Open your code editor and create a new folder with a basic HTML file in it. You can download the example file from the resources section if you’d like.

Open a terminal session in your code editor. Type this command and press return:

git init

You can now track changes in this repository.

💡 Pro tip: Ask your AI coding assistant to create a README.md that explains your project. This will come in handy if you upload the project to GitHub.

A commit is a snapshot of your code at a specific moment.

• A unique ID, such as abc1234def5678
• A message describing what changed
• An author
• A timestamp

Before writing your commit, add your changes to the commit:

git add .

Now write your first commit:

git commit -m 'first commit!'

Your changes are now saved and added to your main branch.

When you’re coding, it’s important to create new branches for new features. This practice can save headaches and improve your coding agent’s context.

Create a new branch called “feature-1”:

git checkout -b feature-1

Any commits you make now will be saved to the feature-1 branch.

To see a list of your branches and your current branch, run:

git branch

To switch branches, use:

git checkout [branch name]

Now save your new progress to your main branch.

First, add some changes to a file in your new branch. Save them with a commit.

Switch to your main branch:

git checkout main

Merge your feature branch into main:

git merge feature-1

Your changes are now saved to your main branch.

💡 Pro tip: Every commit and merge has a unique identifier that you can see with git log. To undo a merge, you can use git reset [commit hash].

When you start a new project, add this simple prompt into your context file. For example, add it to CLAUDE.md if you are using Claude Code.

# Git Rules
1. Create feature branch: `git checkout -b feature-[name]`
2. Commit after each logical change: `git commit -m "Add [what you did]"`
3. When done, ask: "Ready to merge feature-[name] into main?"
4. Wait for approval before merging
5. Never commit directly to main

• To save your code to GitHub, install it to your terminal and then log in with gh auth login.
• Create a new repository on github.com. Copy the commands into your terminal and press return.

Any time you want to save a branch in the cloud, use this command:

git push origin [branch name]