Git generally comes pre-installed with most operating systems, but you can check by running git version in the terminal. If this gives you an error or does not come back with a version number, you'll need to install Git. You can install it using Homebrew.

1. Open the "Terminal" application using "Spotlight Search"
2. Type brew install git and press <Enter>
3. Close and reopen the "Terminal" application
4. Type git version and press <Enter>

If you see a message starting with "git version...", continue below.

To work on and get credit for the labs and lessons that you work on during the program, you will need to sign up for a GitHub account if you don’t already have one.

1. Open the GitHub signup webpage (https://github.com/join)
2. Fill out the form and create your account
3. Verify the email address connected to your GitHub account

If you were able to verify your email address, continue below.

Git is the tool that we’ll use to download and upload the work that we do in labs and lessons. To use Git without signing in every time, you can create a Secure Shell (SSH) key and associate that to your GitHub account. Lastly, you will want to run a few commands to make sure that when you use Git, you get the proper credit for your work. This step will ask you to do work both in your browser and your terminal.

1. Open the "Terminal" application using "Spotlight Search"
2. Type git config --global color.ui true and press <Enter>
3. Type git config --global user.name + <Space> + your name and press <Enter> (Note: this should be your full name, not your GitHub username, in quotes.)
4. Type git config --global user.email + <Space> + the email address you used to sign up to GitHub and press <Enter>
5. Type git config --global init.defaultBranch main to update the default branch name to main
6. Type ssh-keygen and press <Enter>
7. For each prompt do not type anything, just continue to press <Enter>. It's particularly important that you do not enter a passphase and leave the passphrase empty when prompted; otherwise, you'll have to enter that passphrase any time you interact with GitHub (which will happen a lot during the program); and you may run into issues submitting assignments later.
8. Type cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy and press <Enter>. This will copy your SSH key to your clipboard
9. Open the GitHub New SSH key form (https://github.com/settings/ssh/new) (Note: you need to be logged in to GitHub to access that link.)
10. Type "My personal Mac" in the "Title" input field
11. Leave the "Key Type" as "Authentication Key"
12. Paste what’s on your clipboard from step 8 in the "Key" input field
13. Click "Add SSH Key"

If you see your new SSH key beneath the "SSH keys" heading, continue to the next lesson, Verify and Troubleshoot your MacOS Environment Setup.