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GitHub Push - Upload Your Project to GitHub

After you finish customizing your Docusar site on your local computer, you must push it to GitHub. Why? Because hosting providers like Vercel, Netlify, and Cloudflare Pages deploy directly from GitHub. Without GitHub, you cannot make your site live.

This is a complete guide from zero, even if you have never used GitHub before.

Prerequisites​

  • You have Node.js installed and your Docusar project runs locally with npm run start
  • You have a terminal / command prompt (on Windows, use Git Bash or PowerShell. On Mac, use Terminal)
  • You have Git installed. Check with git --version. If not installed, download it from https://git-scm.com

Step 1: Create a GitHub Account​

  1. Go to https://github.com
  2. Click Sign up on the top right
  3. Enter your email, create a password, and choose a username
  4. Verify your email by entering the code sent to your inbox
  5. After verification, you are logged in to GitHub

Step 2: Create a New Repository​

A repository (repo) is a place to store your project.

  1. After logging in, click the + icon on the top right > New repository
  2. Fill in:
    • Repository name: docusar-docs or my-docs (use lowercase, no spaces)
    • Description: Optional - "My Docusar documentation site"
    • Visibility: Choose Public (free hosting needs a public repo for the free plan) or Private
    • Important: Do NOT check "Add a README file", "Add .gitignore", or "Choose a license". Leave all unchecked.
  3. Click Create repository
  4. After creation, you will see a page with commands. Keep this page open. You will see your repository URL like: https://github.com/yourusername/docusar-docs.git

Step 3: Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)​

GitHub no longer allows passwords for pushing. You must create a token. This token acts as your password.

  1. In GitHub, click your profile picture on the top right > Settings
  2. Scroll down in the left sidebar, click Developer settings
  3. Click Personal access tokens > Tokens (classic)
  4. Click Generate new token > Generate new token (classic)
  5. Fill in:
    • Note: docusar-deploy-token
    • Expiration: Choose 90 days or No expiration for simplicity
    • Scopes: Check repo (this will check all sub-options). This gives access to push to repositories.
  6. Click Generate token at the bottom
  7. GitHub will show your token starting with ghp_.... COPY IT IMMEDIATELY and save it in Notepad. You will not see it again. Example: ghp_aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ1234567890

This token is what you will use as the password when pushing.

Step 4: Prepare Your Local Project​

Open a terminal and go to your Docusar project folder.

On Windows:

cd C:\Users\YourName\Documents\docusar

On Mac:

cd ~/Documents/docusar

Check if Git is already initialized:

git status

If it says fatal: not a git repository, you need to initialize it. If it shows files, you already have Git.

Step 5: First Push to GitHub​

Run these commands one by one in your terminal. Replace yourusername and yourrepo with your actual GitHub username and repo name, and yourtoken with the token you copied.

If this is a brand new project (you downloaded the template, not cloned it):

git init
git add .
git commit -m "first commit - docusar setup"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://yourtoken@github.com/yourusername/yourrepo.git
git push -u origin main

Real example with real values:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "first commit - docusar setup"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://ghp_aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ1234567890@github.com/johndoe/docusar-docs.git
git push -u origin main

What each command does:

  • git init - Initializes Git in your project
  • git add . - Adds all files to be tracked
  • git commit -m "message" - Saves a snapshot with a message
  • git branch -M main - Renames the branch to main (GitHub standard)
  • git remote add origin URL - Connects your local project to the GitHub repo
  • git push -u origin main - Uploads files to GitHub

If the push is successful, you will see Writing objects: 100% and your files will appear on the GitHub website. Refresh your GitHub repo page to see them.

If You Already Cloned the Repo Before:

If you started by cloning git clone https://github.com/..., you do not need git init and remote add. Just run:

git add .
git commit -m "update homepage and docs"
git push https://yourtoken@github.com/yourusername/yourrepo.git

Step 6: How to Push Updates Later​

Every time you edit your site (change JSON, add docs), you need to push again:

git add .
git commit -m "update product page"
git push https://yourtoken@github.com/yourusername/yourrepo.git

If you used git push -u origin main before, next time you can just run git push.

Common Errors and Solutions​

Error: Authentication failed You used the wrong token or wrong username. Generate a new token and check the URL. Make sure the token is included before @github.com.

Error: remote origin already exists You already added the remote. Run git remote remove origin and then add it again, or use git remote set-url origin https://yourtoken@github.com/...

Error: failed to push, updates were rejected Your GitHub repo has files that your local copy does not have (like README). Run git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories and then push again.

After a successful push, your project is now safely on GitHub and ready for deployment in the next step.