How to Clone a Project from GitHub: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

If you have a project saved in GitHub as a repository and you want to make updates on your local computer you will need to clone the project. Below are the steps:

1. Select your project from the GitHub repository
2. Click the green Code button and copy the HTTPS url to clone your repository via the web URL
3. Open up a terminal window and create a folder where you'd like your project to reside on your computer

mkdir my-example-parent-folder

4. Clone your repository with the git clone command followed by the url

git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-project.git

5. Open your project in Visual Studio Code or another IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and run npm install
6. If using environment variables add back your .env or .env-local file with all your variables (this file will not save in your repository when you push a new project to GitHub if you are using a .gitignore file).
7. Open your project in the browser

npm run dev

8. Make updates to your project and then push your new changes to your GitHub repository

git add *
git commit -m "new-updates"
git push origin main