Forking a Repository

A fork is your own GitHub copy of someone else's repository. Forking lets you freely experiment and make changes, then propose those changes back to the original via a Pull Request — the foundation of all open source contribution on GitHub.

01.Fork vs Clone: Know the Difference

Clone creates a local copy on your machine. Fork creates a copy on GitHub under your account. For repos you own or are a collaborator on: clone directly and push branches. For repos you have no write access to (most open source): fork first to get your own copy on GitHub, then clone your fork, make changes, and open a PR to the original.

Distributed Architecture

💻

Your Local

push / pull

☁️

GitHub (Remote)

push / pull

💻

Teammate's Local

02.The Complete Fork Contribution Workflow

Step 1: Click "Fork" on GitHub — creates a copy at YOUR_USERNAME/repo. Step 2: Clone YOUR fork to your machine. Step 3: Add the original as "upstream" remote. Step 4: Create a descriptive branch. Step 5: Make your changes and commit. Step 6: Push your branch to your fork (origin). Step 7: Click "Compare & pull request" on GitHub to propose the change.

Branch Visualization

main

feature

HEAD

Commands

commands — click to reveal output

# Click "Fork" button on GitHub

Creates YOUR_USERNAME/repo-name on your account

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USER/forked-repo.git

Clone YOUR fork (not the original!)

cd forked-repo

Enter the project folder

git remote add upstream https://github.com/ORIGINAL_USER/repo.git

Add original as upstream for staying in sync

git checkout -b fix/my-contribution

Create a branch for your specific change

git push origin fix/my-contribution

Push your branch to your fork on GitHub

# Open PR on GitHub: your fork → original repo

Propose your change to the maintainers

KNOWLEDGE CHECK

When should you fork instead of just cloning?

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