# GitHub

> A website where teams store their code with Git and work on it together.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Software, Tech companies
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/github/
- In Spanish: [GitHub](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/github/)

**GitHub** is an online service for hosting code. Each project lives in a **repository**: a folder of files plus its full history, tracked with Git. Developers keep a copy on their laptop, make changes, and **push** them to GitHub so the rest of the team can **pull** them. It started in 2008 and has been owned by Microsoft since 2018.

Git is the tool; GitHub is a place built around it. On top of storing code, it adds what a team needs to collaborate: **pull requests** to propose a change and discuss it before it is merged, **issues** to track bugs and ideas, **GitHub Actions** to run tests and deployments automatically, and pages to document the project.

It matters because it became the default meeting point for software. Most well-known open source projects live there, companies use private repositories for their own code, and a developer's public GitHub profile often works as a portfolio. Alternatives like GitLab and Bitbucket do similar things, and since everything is plain Git, a project can move between them.

## An analogy

Git is like keeping a detailed diary of every edit to a document. GitHub is the shared office where everyone's diaries meet, with a meeting room for proposing changes and a bulletin board for problems.

## Keep in mind

- Git tracks changes; GitHub hosts Git repositories online and adds collaboration tools.
- A pull request is a proposed change that others review before it joins the main code.
- Repositories can be public, open to anyone, or private to a team.
- Owned by Microsoft since 2018; GitLab and Bitbucket are common alternatives.

## Go deeper

- [About GitHub and Git (official docs)](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/start-your-journey/about-github-and-git)
- [GitHub on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub)

## Related terms

- [Git](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/git/): A time machine for code: every change saved, by whom and why.
- [Microsoft](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/microsoft/): The company of Windows and Office, now just as much a cloud company with Azure.
- [Code review](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/code-review/): Having another person read a code change before it becomes part of the product.
- [Bug](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bug/): A mistake in software that makes it behave differently from what was intended.
- [Open source](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/open-source/): Software whose code anyone can read, use, change and share.