Make a GitHub account for backups

If your computer is stolen, breaks, or Claude makes a mess, you want yesterday's app back. That is what GitHub is for. It is a website that keeps copies of building projects. Every time you save a backup, a copy of your whole project at that moment goes to GitHub. You can go back to any backup later; Part 5 shows how.

Your project gets its own private space there, called a repository. Private means only you can see it. GitHub is free for this. In this step you make the account; Claude connects to it in step 8. The website works the same from a Mac and from a Windows PC.

Sign up

1. In your browser, go to github.com/signup.
2. Sign up with an email address and a new password, or Continue with Google, or Continue with Apple. Using your email and a new password keeps things simplest. Use the same email as your other accounts.
3. Make a strong password and let your browser or the Passwords app remember it (the step on strong passwords in Part 1).
4. Choose a username. It is public, so pick something neutral: your name or your app's name, letters and numbers only. GitHub says if it is taken.
5. Answer the rest of the form: your country, and whether you want emails (no is fine).
6. If a puzzle appears asking you to prove you are a person, do it.
7. GitHub emails you a code. Open your email, copy the code, and type it in.
8. If it asks about plans or interests, choose the free plan and skip the rest.

You land on your GitHub home page. It looks busy. You won't use most of it.

Turn on two-step sign-in

Your app's whole history will live here, so protect the account the way the step "Two-step sign-in codes" in Part 1 showed.

1. On github.com, click your profile picture at the top right, then Settings, then Password and authentication, then Enable two-factor authentication.
2. Choose the authenticator app option. A square code appears on screen.
3. Scan it with an authenticator app on your phone (Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, or any other), or add it to the Passwords app on a Mac or iPhone (the step "Two-step sign-in codes" in Part 1). The app shows a six-digit code.
4. Type that code into GitHub's box and continue.
5. Then, under Save your recovery codes, click Download, keep that file somewhere safe, then click I have saved my recovery codes.

Those recovery codes are your way in if you ever lose the phone and the computer. Move the downloaded file from Downloads to somewhere safe: a note in the app that keeps your passwords, or printed and kept with your paper list.