Learn GitHub in one 5 minute cut.
GitHub is where code lives, gets reviewed, and ships. Agents become far more useful once your issues, pull requests, and actions sit next to the code they change. Your five minutes go to the pull request loop, which is the part everyone touches.
Ole is taking you through this one. Free, and it runs right here. No signup.
Lesson not loading? Open it in a new tab. It is the same free lesson either way.
Everything hangs off the pull request
Repositories hold the code, but the working unit is the pull request: a proposed change, its discussion, and the checks that ran on it. Learn to read one and you can work with any team, or any agent.
The ask, written down
An issue is a task with a number: what is wrong or wanted, and the conversation about it. Good issues are what you hand an agent.
The change, with receipts
A pull request shows the diff, who reviewed it, and whether the automated checks passed. Merge is a decision, not a hope.
Checks that run themselves
Actions run tests, linters, and deploys on every push. The green tick on a pull request is the result; the red cross is the reason to read the log.
What you will do in the lesson
Five clips, already on the track. You answer and try things. Nobody demonstrates at you for five minutes.
- Read a pull request. You open a real one and find the three things that matter: what changed, who approved it, and whether the checks passed.
- Write an issue an agent can act on. You turn a vague complaint into an issue with a reproduction, the expected behaviour, and where to look.
- Leave a review comment. You comment on a specific line, request a change, and see how that blocks the merge until resolved.
- Read a failed check. You open the Actions log for a red cross and find the one line that says why it failed.
- Decide: merge or not. You end with three pull requests and call each one: merge, request changes, or close.
Drag or scroll the rail to see every clip.
Before you start
Do I need to know git to use GitHub?
You can review, comment, and manage issues entirely in the browser. Pushing code needs git or an agent that uses it for you. The lesson stays in the browser.
Is GitHub free?
Free for public and private repositories with generous limits on Actions minutes. Teams pay for more seats and features.
Where do coding agents fit in?
They open pull requests from issues, respond to review comments, and fix failing checks. GitHub is the surface where you supervise them.
What is the difference between a fork and a branch?
A branch is a line of work inside your repository; a fork is your own copy of someone else's. Pull requests can come from either.
Other tools people learn next
Same format, same five minutes, still free.
Learners from these organizations are already learning on 
