GitHub Cheat Sheet

A collection of hidden and visible Git and GitHub features, organized as a cheat sheet. It covers URL parameters, branch and commit views, gists, GitHub writing features, issue workflows, and local Git commands.

Reading notes

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• Adding ?w=1 to a diff URL removes whitespace-only changes.
• Adding ?ts=4 to a diff or file URL changes tab width, though not on Gists or raw file views.
• Adding ?author={user} to a commits URL filters commits by author.
• A repository URL can omit the .git suffix when cloning.
• The repository’s Branches page lists branches not merged into the main branch and lets you compare or delete them.
• GitHub compares branches with /compare/{range}, including date-based ranges and .diff or .patch views.
• Forked repositories can be compared with /compare/{foreign-user}:{branch}...{own-branch}.
• Gists can be cloned, pushed to, and opened as HTML-only pages with .pibb.
• git.io shortens GitHub URLs and can be used with curl.
• Keyboard shortcuts on repository pages include t, w, s, l, y, and ?.
• Line numbers or #L52 style fragments highlight lines and ranges in code files.
• Commit messages with fix, close, or resolve keywords can close issues.
• Issues can auto-link with # or user/repo#ISSUE_NUMBER.
• Owners and collaborators can lock conversations in pull requests and issues.
• Travis CI can build pull requests, and the page points to the commit status API.
• Markdown code fences support syntax highlighting through GitHub’s Linguist.
• Emojis can be used in issues, pull requests, and commit messages with :name_of_emoji:.
• Images and GIFs can be embedded in comments and READMEs, and GitHub caches them.
• Wiki pages can embed images with height or width settings.
• Pressing r in a comment thread quotes selected text into a block quote.
• Chrome users can paste clipboard images into comments for auto-upload.
• GitHub offers quick license templates for new repositories and existing ones, including .gitignore.
• Task lists work in issues and pull requests, and read-only task lists also work in full Markdown documents.
• Relative links are recommended in Markdown because they survive URL changes.
• GitHub Pages can expose repository metadata through site.github, and Jemoji plus jekyll-mentions work in posts and pages.
• GitHub renders YAML metadata at the top of documents as a horizontal table.
• GitHub supports tabular data in .csv and .tsv files.
• A merged pull request can be reverted from the Revert button.
• Rendered prose diffs, diffable maps, and expanding context are available in diffs.
• Pull requests can be viewed as .diff or .patch.
• GitHub renders common image formats and compares image versions.
• Hub adds command-line helpers for GitHub workflows.
• Adding a CONTRIBUTING file links it for issue and pull request authors.
• Octicons are open sourced.
• git checkout - switches to the previous branch.
• git stripspace strips trailing whitespace, collapses newlines, and adds a final newline.
• Pull requests can be fetched locally through refs/pull/[PR-Number]/head or a broader refspec.
• Empty commits can be created with --allow-empty for annotation and communication.
• git status -sb shows a shorter status view.
• A styled git log command is shown, along with a git show :/query search for recent commit messages.
• git branch --merged and git branch --no-merged list merged and unmerged branches.
• --fixup and --autosquash help correct earlier commits.
• git instaweb starts a web view of the local repository.
• .gitconfig aliases, auto-correct, and color settings are presented as configuration examples.