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Repo Maintenance
Think of git as a magical time machine for your code! Every time you make a change, git can remember it—so if you mess up, you can jump back to any previous point. It helps you (and your team) keep track of every edit, work together without tripping over each other, and avoid “I broke everything!” disasters.
| Command | What It Does (Plain English) |
|---|---|
git clone <url> |
Makes a copy of a repo from the internet |
git status |
Shows what’s changed since your last save |
git add . |
Prepares all changed files to be saved |
git commit -m "message" |
Saves a snapshot with a note (your message) |
git push |
Sends your changes up to GitHub |
git pull |
Brings down the latest changes from GitHub |
🦄 You should already know this stuff- but hey, it’s here for completeness!
Welcome to the world of .gitignore—your project's bouncer, keeping the right stuff in and the wrong stuff out! This guide will make you a gitignore master in minutes. ✨
- When in doubt, ignore it out!
- You can always un-ignore something if you need it later.
- Never, ever commit API keys, credentials, or anything you wouldn’t share with the world.
- Use comments in your
.gitignoreto remind yourself (and others) why something’s there.
Imagine your repo is a nightclub. .gitignore is the list at the door—it tells Git which files are VIP (allowed in the repo) and which files are never getting past security (ignored completely). This keeps your codebase clean, safe, and drama-free.
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.envfiles - Database passwords & tokens
- Identity providers & private keys
- Editor & OS clutter (looking at you,
.DS_Store) - Log files, caches, and build artifacts
- Anything that's auto-generated
- but keep
package-lock.json—it’s your secret ingredient for consistent installs!
- but keep
-
Prevents accidental chaos:
- Avoids committing stuff that will break, leak, or just plain confuse your team
🦄 ProTip: It’s way easier to add stuff to your
.gitignorebefore a mistake happens. If you realize later you need to un-ignore something, just delete or update the line—no harm, no foul.
This starter uses a custom .gitignore created by blending Toptal's best practices for Node, dotenv, VS Code, and macOS. Then, personal touches were added for extra sanity—see the notes directly in the file: View on GitHub.
You should always put a .gitignore at the root of your project—this keeps your main repo safe. But here’s a pro move: you can also drop a .gitignore into any subfolder to quietly ignore files or even whole directories, and nobody will see a thing.
- Just add a
.gitignoreinside your secret folder. - Put this inside:
**/*.*
- Now everything in that folder is invisible to Git—like it was never even there!
⚠️ Use with caution: This is great for local cache, temp, or personal notes—just remember what you’re hiding!
If you haven’t had the joy yet of trying to permanently remove an entire commit from git (and even better, from GitHub), it is a nightmare. Please don’t put that on yourself! Just in case—because I really wish someone had told me this a long time ago—here are my personal suggestions:
- Don't panic. Seriously, breathe.
- Just off the bat: Don't start poking around or looking at files before you ask for help.
- Check out the Repo Emergency Response: Secret Leaks Edition page for a step-by-step recovery checklist.
It’s not just .gitignore! Many tools have their own ignore files that work the same way:
-
.eslintignore— tells ESLint what to skip -
.prettierignore— tells Prettier what to skip -
.dockerignore— tells Docker what NOT to copy into your images -
.npmignore— (if publishing a package) tells npm what NOT to publish
Each file acts as a filter for its own tool. All have the same goal: keep what matters, ditch what doesn’t.
🦄 ProTip: Just because these files all have
ignorein the name doesn't mean they're interchangeable! Only skip files from each tool if it makes sense—what you block from Git doesn't always make sense to block from formatting, linting, or Docker builds. For example:.envshould be ignored by Git, but let Prettier or ESLint work their magic on anything that should stay consistent in your project.
Made an oopsie and committed something sensitive? Don’t panic—every developer has done it at least once (myself included!). Here’s how to keep your cool and minimize the damage:
- Just off the bat—don’t look at anything yet, ask for help first! Team leads, mentors, or even an internet friend can save you hours of stress and help prevent disaster.
- Please, don’t trust AI tools with this process! Even experts can mess up—manual review is your friend.
- Always make a backup clone of your repo before trying any big history changes. Seriously, always.
- 🔒 Add secrets, tokens, or passwords to your
.gitignorenow—future-you will thank you! - If you get stuck, check out GitHub’s sensitive data removal guide.
- And once you’ve finished, go ahead and change that secret anyway—because you never know who might’ve seen it in the five seconds it existed. It’s always safer to rotate credentials than assume you’re in the clear!
💡 It’s always better to come clean and ask for help early, rather than risk saying, “Whoops, the whole repository disappeared.”
Important
✨ Sneak Peek Alert! ✨
You’re looking at an early preview of some automation magic I’ve been brewing up. It’s not live yet (so don’t go looking for commits - nothing to see there... yet). But once it’s ready, you’ll be able to automate your Copilot workflows in both your IDE and pipelines like a pro.
Stay tuned for the real show! 🦄
Your GitHub repo is more than just code—make it a self-cleaning, auto-updating, and contributor-friendly machine with these automation essentials:
- What it is: Automatically formats code for style consistency.
- Popular tools: Prettier, Black, rustfmt, gofmt, google-java-format, Spotless, isort, Remark.
- Bonus tip: Format on commit with pre-commit hooks or in your CI pipeline for bulletproof consistency.
- What it is: Analyzes code for errors, code smells, and best practices.
- Popular tools: ESLint, flake8, pylint, Checkstyle, Clippy, golint, staticcheck.
-
Bonus tip: Auto-fix many issues directly via linter CLI (
eslint --fix,black ., etc).
- What it is: Ensures all commit messages follow a convention (for clarity and automation).
- Popular tools: commitlint, cz-customizable, Commitizen, gitmoji, @commitlint/config-conventional.
- Bonus tip: Pin automatic emojis to commit headers for instant readability and changelog automation (see gitmoji or commitlint plugins).
- What it is: Automatically generates/update changelogs from commit history.
- Popular tools: standard-version, auto-changelog, Release Drafter, semantic-release.
- Bonus tip: Combine with commit linting for automated, human-readable changelogs—zero manual maintenance!
- What it is: Create, tag, and publish releases automatically (and even publish to npm, PyPI, Maven, etc).
- Popular tools: GitHub Actions, semantic-release, release-it.
- Bonus tip: Auto-generate GitHub releases with full changelogs and attach build artifacts—all hands-free!
- What it is: Automated scanning, updating, and PR creation for dependencies.
- Popular tools: Dependabot, Renovate, pyup, npm-check-updates.
- Bonus tip: Use schedule-based updates for less notification spam and smoother workflows.
- What it is: Auto-detect vulnerabilities and license issues.
- Popular tools: GitHub Advanced Security, Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check.
- Bonus tip: Use GitHub’s “Code Scanning Alerts” and auto-block PRs with security findings.
- What it is: Standardize PR descriptions and automate checklists or reviewer assignments.
-
Popular tools:
.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, GitHub Actions, danger-js. - Bonus tip: Auto-add reviewers or assign labels with GitHub Actions workflows.
- What it is: Standardize bug reports, feature requests, and more.
-
Popular tools:
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/, GitHub Actions (triage or label). - Bonus tip: Auto-assign labels and responders to issues as they’re created.
- What it is: Track and enforce code test coverage before merging.
- Popular tools: Codecov, Coveralls, SonarCloud.
- Bonus tip: Block merges if coverage drops below your threshold!
- What it is: Keep documentation up to date and pretty, built automatically on every push.
- Popular tools: Docusaurus, MkDocs, Sphinx, docsify.
- Bonus tip: Auto-deploy your docs site to GitHub Pages on every push.
Set up a monorepo workflow where formatting, linting, testing, changelog generation, and releases all run automatically on PRs, merges, or releases. Bonus points for Slack/Teams integration or even deploying your app as soon as a release is cut.
Your repo should work for you, not the other way around!
This page was generated with the help of ChatGPT as directed by Ashley Childress