Remote Repositories

So far everything you have done has been local — changes stored only on your own machine. Remotes are copies of your repository hosted on a server such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Working with remotes is what enables collaboration and serves as your off-site backup.

Adding a Remote

When you clone a repository, Git automatically sets up a remote named origin pointing to the URL you cloned from. If you initialised a repo locally and want to connect it to a remote, add one manually:

git remote add origin https://github.com/you/my-project.git

Listing Remotes

git remote -v

This shows all configured remotes and their fetch and push URLs.

Pushing to a Remote

git push uploads your local commits to the remote:

# Push the current branch and set origin as the upstream
git push -u origin main

The -u flag sets the upstream tracking relationship. After this, you can simply run git push on subsequent pushes.

Fetching from a Remote

git fetch downloads new commits, branches, and tags from the remote without changing your working directory or current branch:

git fetch origin

This is safe — it only updates the remote-tracking references (like origin/main) and does not modify your local branches.

Pulling from a Remote

git pull is a convenience command that runs git fetch followed by git merge (or git rebase, depending on your configuration):

git pull origin main

Pull brings remote changes into your current branch. If both you and a collaborator have pushed to the same branch, pull may trigger a merge.

Remote-Tracking Branches

When you fetch, Git creates references like origin/main that represent the state of the remote branch at the last fetch. You can inspect them:

git log origin/main --oneline

Pushing a New Branch

To push a branch that does not yet exist on the remote:

git push -u origin feature/login

Deleting a Remote Branch

After a feature branch has been merged on the remote, delete it to keep things tidy:

git push origin --delete feature/login

Renaming a Remote

git remote rename origin upstream

A Typical Collaboration Cycle

# Start by getting the latest changes
git pull origin main