My Practical Git Handbook

How I run a free personal website on GitHub Pages — and the exact Git commands I use to stay sane.

After setting up JCX360 on GitHub Pages with a custom domain, a few friends asked how I actually manage updates, publishing, and syncing between GitHub and my local machine.

This is not a theoretical Git guide. This is the real, practical workflow I use day-to-day to:

Pull the latest changes
Edit locally in VS Code
Publish updates to a live site
Avoid conflicts and lost work

🔄 Always Start by Getting the Latest

If you edited anything on GitHub.com, always sync first:

git pull

This keeps your local copy aligned and prevents painful merge issues.

✏️ See What You Changed

git status

This shows which files you modified, added, or are ready to commit.

➕ Stage Your Changes

Stage everything:

git add .

Or stage a single file:

git add index.html

💾 Commit (Save a Snapshot)

git commit -m "Update hero messaging and delivery focus"

Think of commits as clean restore points — small, meaningful, and descriptive.

🚀 Push (Publish to Live Site)

git push

This uploads your changes to GitHub and automatically redeploys your GitHub Pages site.

🔁 My Daily Flow (Muscle Memory)

git pull
git status
git add .
git commit -m "Describe update"
git push

🛑 Discard Local Changes (If You Messed Up)

git reset --hard
git pull

⚠️ This deletes uncommitted local changes and resets to GitHub’s version.

Why This Works for a Personal Platform

Simple — No build pipelines required
Free — GitHub Pages + custom domain
Safe — Full version history
Scalable — Works as content grows

It’s a lightweight but enterprise-grade workflow — which fits perfectly with how I think about platforms: simple, governed, and sustainable.

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