Lesson 4 · GitHub
The cabinet: commits on main
You open: GitHub → connorclaire-next → commits on main
GitHub is the history. A commit is a dated copy of files. Pushing puts that copy in the shared cabinet. Vercel builds whatever main currently is. If GitHub does not have the change, Vercel cannot.
You do not need the command line for this course. Publishing a blog post from /admin on the live site already writes a commit. Watching GitHub afterwards is how you confirm the cabinet received it.
main is the production branch. Other branches can exist; they get preview URLs, not connorclaire.ca. GitHub’s own beginner tutorial teaches repositories, branches, commits, and pull requests in the browser. That vocabulary is enough.
GitHub Actions — the robots in .github/workflows — are a later lesson. For now, know the tab exists. If something “automatic” was supposed to happen and did not, look there. Do not author YAML today.
Practice
In the mock cabinet, make a commit then push, and watch Vercel notice. On GitHub, open the real commit list and find the most recent message on main.
Your cabinet
Last published post
GitHub (main)
Last published post
Vercel last saw
Last published post
The remote cabinet matches what Vercel last built.
Takeaway. Commits are dated copies. main is what Vercel builds for production. No commit, no deploy.
From the experts
Opening this lesson counts as done.