Adding files from your web browser

1. Navigate to the GitHub repository you want to add files to.
2. Click on the Add file dropdown button and select one of the options:
   1. Create new file
      1. Name your file in the box near the top left corner. Include the file extension (for example, about.md instead of about).
      2. Write your code and/or content in the <> Edit new file box.
   2. Upload files
      • Click and drag the files from your file system into the indicated space. Or, click choose your files to navigate your file system instead of clicking and dragging.
3. (Optional) Once you are finished creating or uploading your file, add a commit message in the first box underneath the Commit changes heading.
   • If your commit message is longer than ~50 characters, consider writing a shorter description in the first box and adding extra details in the larger box below.
4. Ensure that the Commit directly to the master branch option is selected.
   • Note: If you have changed your default branch name from master to main, the option would read Commit directly to the main branch. For more information on this, you can click here.
5. Click the green Commit changes button.

Adding files from the CLI

1. Navigate to the GitHub repository you want to add files to.
2. If you are adding a new file to this repository:
   • Use the touch command to create a new file in your current directory. For example, if you want to make an HTML file called about, the command would be touch about.html.
3. If you are adding an existing file to this repository:
   • Use the mv command to move an existing file from somewhere else on your computer to the current directory. The syntax for using mv is mv currentFileLocation newFileLocation.
   • For example, if you wanted to move a file named about.html from one directory level up into your current directory, the command would be mv ../about.html ..
4. Stage your change with git add <your filename here>.
5. Commit your change with git ci.
6. Push your change to GitHub with git push origin master.
   • Note: If you have changed your default branch name from master to main, the command would instead be git push origin main. For more information on this you can click here.

Adding files from the GitHub desktop app