Quickstart for GitHub Pages

Introduction

GitHub Pages are public webpages hosted and published through GitHub. The quickest way to get up and running is by using the Jekyll Theme Chooser to load a pre-made theme. You can then modify your GitHub Pages' content and style.

This guide will lead you through creating a user site at username.github.io.

Creating your website

1. In the upper-right corner of any page, use the drop-down menu, and select New repository.

2. Enter username.github.io as the repository name. Replace username with your GitHub username. For example, if your username is octocat, the repository name should be octocat.github.io.

3. Under your repository name, click Settings.

4. In the "Code and automation" section of the sidebar, click Pages.

5. Click Choose a theme.

6. The Theme Chooser will open. Browse the available themes, then click Select theme to select a theme. It's easy to change your theme later, so if you're not sure, just choose one for now.

7. After you select a theme, your repository's README.md file will open in the file editor. The README.md file is where you will write the content for your site. You can edit the file or keep the default content for now.

8. When you are done editing the file, click Commit changes.

9. Visit username.github.io to view your new website. Note: It can take up to 20 minutes for changes to your site to publish after you push the changes to GitHub.

Changing the title and description

By default, the title of your site is username.github.io. You can change the title by editing the _config.yml file in your repository. You can also add a description for your site.

1. Click the Code tab of your repository.

2. In the file list, click _config.yml to open the file.

3. Click to edit the file.

4. The _config.yml file already contains a line that specifies the theme for your site. Add a new line with title: followed by the title you want. Add a new line with description: followed by the description you want. For example:

   theme: jekyll-theme-minimal
   title: Octocat's homepage
   description: Bookmark this to keep an eye on my project updates!
   

5. When you are done editing the file, click Commit changes.

Next Steps

For more information about how to add additional pages to your site, see "Adding content to your GitHub Pages site using Jekyll."

For more information about setting up a GitHub Pages site with Jekyll, see "About GitHub Pages and Jekyll."