GitHub Setup

Authenticate with GitHub, fork the theme, and deploy your site to GitHub Pages.

flowchart LR
    A([Machine Setup done]) --> B[gh auth login]
    B --> C[Fork bamr87/zer0-mistakes]
    C --> D[./scripts/fork-cleanup.sh]
    D --> E[docker compose up]
    E --> F[git push origin main]
    F --> G[GitHub Actions builds site]
    G --> H([username.github.io live 🚀])

Prerequisites

• Completed Machine Setup (Docker, Git, GitHub CLI)
• A GitHub account

Step 1 — Authenticate with GitHub CLI

gh auth login
# → GitHub.com
# → HTTPS
# → Login with a web browser
# Copy the one-time code, press Enter, paste in the browser

Verify:

gh auth status

Step 2 — Fork the Repository

Fork bamr87/zer0-mistakes into your account. The easiest path is naming it <your-username>.github.io so GitHub Pages deploys at your root domain — no baseurl needed.

Via GitHub CLI:

gh repo fork bamr87/zer0-mistakes --clone
cd zer0-mistakes

Or via the GitHub web UI:

1. Go to github.com/bamr87/zer0-mistakes
2. Click Fork → set name to <your-username>.github.io
3. Click Create fork, then clone:

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/<your-username>.github.io.git
cd <your-username>.github.io

See docs/installation/forking.md for the full fork → configure → personalize workflow.

Step 3 — Run the Fork Cleanup Script

The interactive wizard strips out theme-specific content and configures the repo for your site:

./scripts/fork-cleanup.sh

It will prompt you for your site title, URL, author name, and other basic settings and write them into _config.yml.

Step 4 — Start the Dev Server

docker compose up

Visit http://localhost:4000 to confirm your personalized site is running.

Step 5 — Enable GitHub Pages

In your forked repo on GitHub.com:

1. Settings → Pages
2. Source: Deploy from branch
3. Branch: main → / (root)
4. Click Save

After the first push, GitHub Actions builds the site and it appears at:

https://<your-username>.github.io

Step 6 — Push Your Changes

git add _config.yml pages/          # stage by path, not `git add -A`
git commit -m "feat: initial site personalization"
git push origin main

Watch the deployment: Actions tab → pages build and deployment workflow.

Git Workflow for Ongoing Development

# New feature branch
git checkout -b feat/my-feature

# Make changes, then stage the files you actually touched
git add pages/_posts/my-first-post.md
git commit -m "feat(posts): add first blog post"

# Push and open PR
git push origin feat/my-feature
gh pr create --fill

Merge to main to trigger a Pages deployment.

Troubleshooting

Forking into a different repo name (not username.github.io)

Add baseurl to _config.yml:

baseurl: "/repo-name"
url: "https://username.github.io"

Pages build failing

# Check the Actions tab in GitHub for build logs
# Common fix: ensure _config.yml has no YAML syntax errors
bundle exec jekyll build --config '_config.yml,_config_dev.yml' --trace

gh auth login fails

Ensure port 443 (HTTPS) is open. Try --web flag or create a Personal Access Token and use gh auth login --with-token.

Remote origin mismatch

git remote -v                                       # verify remotes
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git