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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-10-12. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Quickstart for GitHub Pages

You can use GitHub Pages to showcase some open source projects, host a blog, or even share your résumé. This guide will help get you started on creating your next website.

GitHub Pages is available in public repositories with GitHub Free and GitHub Free for organizations, and in public and private repositories with GitHub Pro, GitHub Team, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and GitHub Enterprise Server.

Introduction

GitHub Pages are public webpages hosted and published through GitHub Enterprise Server. The quickest way to get up and running is by using the Jekyll Theme Chooser to load a pre-made theme. You can then modify your GitHub Pages' content and style.

This guide will lead you through creating a user site at username.github.io.

Creating your website

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, use the drop-down menu, and select New repository. Drop-down with option to create a new repository

  2. Enter username.github.io as the repository name. Replace username with your GitHub username. For example, if your username is octocat, the repository name should be octocat.github.io. Repository name field

  3. Under your repository name, click Settings. Repository settings button

  4. In the left sidebar, click Pages. Page tab in the left-hand sidebar

  5. Under "Build and deployment", under "Source", select Deploy from a branch.

  6. Under "Build and deployment", under "Branch", use the None or Branch drop-down menu and select a publishing source.

    Drop-down menu to select a publishing source

  7. Optionally, open the README.md file of your repository. The README.md file is where you will write the content for your site. You can edit the file or keep the default content for now.

  8. Visit username.github.io to view your new website. Note: It can take up to 10 minutes for changes to your site to publish after you push the changes to GitHub Enterprise Server.

Changing the title and description

By default, the title of your site is username.github.io. You can change the title by editing the _config.yml file in your repository. You can also add a description for your site.

  1. Click the Code tab of your repository.

  2. In the file list, click _config.yml to open the file.

  3. Click to edit the file.

  4. The _config.yml file already contains a line that specifies the theme for your site. Add a new line with title: followed by the title you want. Add a new line with description: followed by the description you want. For example:

    theme: jekyll-theme-minimal
    title: Octocat's homepage
    description: Bookmark this to keep an eye on my project updates!
    
  5. When you are done editing the file, click Commit changes.

Next Steps

For more information about how to add additional pages to your site, see "Adding content to your GitHub Pages site using Jekyll."

For more information about setting up a GitHub Pages site with Jekyll, see "About GitHub Pages and Jekyll."