First-time Git setup: name, email, default branch, SSH or HTTPS

Every commit records an author name and email. If you have not set them, Git either stops with an error or guesses from your computer’s user and host name and prints a warning. Either way, set them once before your first commit.

The settings that matter

git config --global user.name "Ada Lovelace"
git config --global user.email [email protected]
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global pull.rebase false
git config --global push.autoSetupRemote true

• user.name / user.email: use the email you registered with GitHub (or the private noreply address GitHub offers in your email settings) so commits link to your profile.
• init.defaultBranch main: new repositories start on main instead of master, which matches what GitHub uses for new repositories.
• pull.rebase false: when your branch and the remote have both moved, git pull creates a merge commit instead of stopping with Need to specify how to reconcile divergent branches. Use true if your team prefers rebasing.
• push.autoSetupRemote true: the first plain git push on a new branch creates the matching remote branch and links it, so you can skip -u origin branch-name.

--global writes to the .gitconfig file in your home folder and applies to every repository. Inside one repository you can override a value by leaving out --global, which is handy for a work email on work projects.

git config --global --list
git config --show-origin user.email
git config user.email [email protected]

SSH or HTTPS?

GitHub shows two kinds of clone URLs. They reach the same repository; only the way you log in differs.

• HTTPS (https://github.com/owner/repo.git): works on almost any network. GitHub does not accept your account password for Git over HTTPS, so you sign in through a credential helper such as Git Credential Manager, through gh auth login from the GitHub CLI, or with a personal access token.
• SSH ([email protected]:owner/repo.git): you create a key pair once, add the public half to your GitHub account, and Git stops asking for credentials. Some company networks block the SSH port, in which case HTTPS is the easier choice.

Both are fine; pick one and use it consistently. To see which one a repository uses, and to switch it:

git remote -v
git remote set-url origin [email protected]:owner/repo.git

To create an SSH key and check that GitHub accepts it after you have added the .pub file under Settings, SSH and GPG keys:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
ssh -T [email protected]

The script

Save it as git-first-setup.sh and run bash git-first-setup.sh "Your Name" [email protected]. It is safe to run again; it simply overwrites the same settings. It never creates an SSH key for you: it prints your public key if one exists, or the command to make one.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

if [ "$#" -ne 2 ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 \"Your Name\" [email protected]" >&2
  exit 1
fi

name="$1"
email="$2"

if ! command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "Git is not installed. Install it first, then run this script again." >&2
  exit 1
fi

git config --global user.name "$name"
git config --global user.email "$email"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global pull.rebase false
git config --global push.autoSetupRemote true

echo "Git is configured:"
git config --global --list | grep -E '^(user\.|init\.|pull\.|push\.)'

key="$HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub"
if [ -f "$key" ]; then
  echo
  echo "Found an SSH public key. Add it to your Git host if you have not yet:"
  cat "$key"
else
  echo
  echo "No SSH key at $key."
  echo "To create one (press Enter to accept the default path, then pick a passphrase):"
  echo "  ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C \"$email\""
fi

On Windows, run it from Git Bash, which comes with Git for Windows.