What is Git?

The save-point idea

Games have save points; code has commits. Each commit is a snapshot of your whole project with a message saying what changed. Broke everything an hour ago? Rewind to the commit where it worked.

Git vs GitHub

• Git is the tool that runs on your computer and records commits.
• GitHub is a website that stores a copy of your repository online — a backup, a portfolio and a collaboration hub.

You'll use Git constantly in Level 2, when every change to your website gets committed and pushed before it goes live.

The daily rhythm (preview)

git status            # what changed?
git add .             # choose the changes to save
git commit -m "Add hero section"   # take the snapshot
git push              # upload to GitHub

Don't memorise this yet — you'll do it for real in your first Git quest. Just recognise the shape: change → stage → commit → push.

Check your install

git --version

Three places, not one save button

Your editor's saved working file, Git's staging area and the last committed snapshot can be different. Saving writes the file to disk. git add selects its current content for the next commit. git commit records that staged content locally. git push shares committed history with a configured remote; it does not send every unsaved/uncommitted edit.

A harmless observation exercise: open an existing practice repository, run git status, edit a note and save, then run status again. Notice it reports a modified file. If your folder is not a repository, status tells you so; do not run random recovery commands. The later Git Checkpoints lesson teaches repository creation and three complete commits.

Do not use git add . blindly when you have not inspected the project: it can stage more than the one change you intended. Stage named files and review git diff --staged before committing. If the branch is shared, safe recovery normally adds a revert commit rather than rewriting history with reset or force-push.

Before machine setup, only git --version is required to show the tool exists. It does not prove a repository or remote is configured. Explain Git versus GitHub and save versus stage versus commit; the full operational rehearsal belongs in the later expanded Git lessons whichever branch you choose.