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Clone the repository, making a copy on your computer

You need to load the repository (and all its history) on your computer before you can begin to change it.

<aside> 🕵️‍♂️ You can modify individual files on GitHub directly, using the built-in editor. However, most of the time, you’ll want to do this on a computer.

</aside>

Using GitHub Desktop

• Navigate to the repository page on GitHub.

• Press the “Code” button

  

• Press the “Open with GitHub Desktop” Button

• Follow the prompts on screen

Using the GitHub Command Line Tool gh

Login to GitHub by calling:

gh auth login

• At the prompts, select:
  • “? What account do you want to log into?” GitHub.com
  • “? What is your preferred protocol for Git operations?” HTTPS
  • “? Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials?” Y
  • “? How would you like to authenticate GitHub CLI?” Login with a web browser
• At the prompt “! First copy your one-time code:” copy your one-time code which looks like AB12-34CD.
• Open a new tab in your web browser and navigate to https://github.com/login/device. (Your browser may open automatically.)
• There, paste the one-time code.
• On the next page, select Authorize github.
• Follow any other prompts to complete your login.

💡 We no longer recommend using self-generated public keys (like ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to authenticate on GitHub. The modern authentication schemes using tokens, and incorporating 2FA, are more secure, especially in shared systems like Oscar. gh uses these tokens.

• Navigate to the repository page on GitHub.