A complete beginner's guide to mastering GitHub
GitHub compiles its GitHub for Beginners Season 3 into a single crash course covering core GitHub workflows: planning work with Issues and Projects, automating CI/CD with GitHub Actions, using built-in security features, publishing with GitHub Pages, writing Markdown, and making first open source contributions.
Overview
This video is a compilation of a beginner series that walks through common GitHub tasks and concepts, including:
- Organizing work with GitHub Issues and GitHub Projects
- Automating workflows with GitHub Actions
- Getting started with GitHub Security
- Deploying a site with GitHub Pages
- Writing and formatting content using Markdown on GitHub
- Making an initial open source contribution
- Using Git and GitHub from within Visual Studio Code
- Addressing common beginner questions about GitHub
Chapters
- 00:00 How to use GitHub issues and projects
- 07:54 How to use GitHub Actions
- 15:45 Getting started with GitHub security
- 20:28 Getting started with GitHub Pages
- 24:11 Getting started with Markdown on GitHub
- 29:46 Getting started with open source contributions
- 35:01 How to use Git and GitHub in VS Code
- 43:42 Answering the most common GitHub beginner questions
Resources
- Developer portfolio template: https://github.com/github-samples/gitfolio?utm_source=youtube-episode-1&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- Learn more about GitHub Security: https://github.blog/developer-skills/github/github-for-beginners-getting-started-with-github-security?utm_source=youtube-episode-3&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- Basic writing and formatting syntax: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax?utm_source=youtube-episode-6&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- Finding ways to contribute to open source on GitHub: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/exploring-projects-on-github/finding-ways-to-contribute-to-open-source-on-github?utm_source=youtube-episode-7&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- What is open source?: https://github.com/resources/articles/what-is-open-source-software?utm_source=youtube-episode-7&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- Adding your SSH key to ssh-agent: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent?utm_source=youtube-episode-9&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026#adding-your-ssh-key-to-the-ssh-agent
- Syncing a fork: https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/working-with-forks/syncing-a-fork?utm_source=youtube-episode-9&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026
- Using GitHub Copilot code review: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/request-a-code-review/use-code-review?utm_source=youtube-episode-9&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=gfb-s3-2026