codex-lv2-may-2025

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Lesson: Project Setup and Git Initialization

🎯 Objective

Create a new project folder, initialize Git, and create starter files.

âś… Step 1: Create a New Folder Locally

  1. Open your terminal.
  2. Navigate to the directory where you want your project folder to live:
cd path/to/your/projects
  1. Create a new folder:
mkdir my-website
cd my-website

What happened? You just created a new directory (folder) for your project and moved into it. This is like creating a new drawer in a filing cabinet and opening it to work inside.

How to verify: Type pwd in your terminal. You should see the full path ending with /my-website. Also type ls - you should see an empty directory (no files yet).

đź“Ś Reminder: Take notes if needed! Writing down steps will help you complete the challenge later.

âś… Step 2: Initialize Git

Inside your project folder, initialize Git:

git init

You’ll see:

Initialized empty Git repository

What happened? Git just created a hidden .git folder inside your project directory. This folder contains all the information Git needs to track changes to your files. Think of it like Git’s “memory” for your project.

How to verify: Type ls -la in your terminal. You should see a .git folder listed (it might be hidden, so look carefully). Also, type git status - you should see “On branch main” and “No commits yet”.

âś… Commit Reminder:

git add .
git commit -m "Initialize git repository"

What happened? You just told Git to start tracking all files in the current directory (. means “everything here”) and saved your first “snapshot” of the project.

How to verify: Type git log - you should see your commit with the message “Initialize git repository”.

âś… Step 3: Create Starter Files

Create your starter files:

touch index.html style.css

What happened? The touch command created two empty files: index.html (your main webpage) and style.css (for styling). These files exist but are completely empty right now.

How to verify: Type ls in your terminal. You should see both index.html and style.css listed. Type cat index.html - it should show nothing (empty file).

âś… Commit Reminder:

git add .
git commit -m "Add index.html and style.css"

What happened? You told Git to track these new files and saved another snapshot. Now Git knows about your HTML and CSS files.

How to verify: Type git status - you should see “working tree clean” (no uncommitted changes). Type git log --oneline - you should see both commits listed.

âś… Summary

You’ve successfully:

You’re now ready to connect your local repository to GitHub!

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