Push

You might say

My local changes are ready. How do I send them to GitHub so everyone else can see them?

Upload local commits to a remote repositoryPush sends commits and branch references to a remote such as GitHub. It shares committed history, not uncommitted files. The remote may reject the push if new work exists there or if branch rules require review.

Know first

Git Commit

Local repositoryTwo commits ahead

Upload commitspush→

Remote repositoryBranch updated on GitHub

git push

Push sends local commits to a remote branch. It does not include uncommitted edits. Afterward, confirm that GitHub shows the expected commit on the expected branch.

Quick checkChoose the best answer

After a local fix commit, how do you safely share it with remote collaborators?

Inspect the commit and target branch, push to its remote branch, then confirm the remote hashForce-push straight to main so remote exactly matches localSend edited files to a teammate; Git history need not be shared

You can say this to an AI Agent

Inspect the current branch, commits to push, and its upstream. Once it contains only this fix, push to that branch. Report the remote branch and latest commit hash; do not rewrite main or use force.

When to use it

Back up committed work to the remote
Share a branch with teammates
Update a pull request
Publish a reviewed commit history

When NOT to use it

Expect uncommitted changes to be uploaded
Force-push a shared branch without coordination
Push secrets and try to delete them later
Ignore a rejection without checking remote changes

Anatomy

git pushoriginmain

Publishes commits from a local branch to its remote counterpart

The remote’s short name; Git names the cloned source origin by default.

The local branch being pushed, usually main or a feature branch

Variants

git push

Sync local branch commits to remote

push -u

git push -u origin main

Establish a tracking relationship between local and remote branches when pushing for the first time

push --force

git push --force

Rewrites remote history; use it only when you understand who and what it will affect

Typical use cases

Publish feature branch

zsh — my-first-page

$ git push Enumerating objects: 8, done. Counting objects: 100% (8/8), done. Writing objects: 100% (8/8), 1.24 KiB | 1.24 MiB/s, done. To github.com:maya-lee/my-first-page.git a3f9c21..e7b2d48 main -> main

Update pull request

zsh — my-first-page

$ git push To github.com:maya-lee/my-first-page.git ! [rejected] main -> main (non-fast-forward) error: failed to push some refs hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains hint: work that you do not have locally. hint: 'git pull' before pushing again. Pull and integrate the remote commits, then push again

Share a fix

my-first-page Just refreshed

📄 index.htmlFix mobile button alignment1 minute ago

📄 style.cssFix mobile button alignment1 minute ago

📄 .gitignoreInitialize project3 days ago

✓ Latest commit found on the remote branch

Sync remote backup

Working directory

📄 index.html
📄 style.css
📄 .gitignore
📄 .env　🔑

Remote repository

📄 index.html
📄 style.css
📄 .gitignore
.env is ignored ✓