Creating an Account

Creating an Account

Creating a GitHub Account and Choosing a Username

Sign up at github.com/signup (https://github.com/signup 29 ) with an email address, password and username (or with Google or Apple), then enter the code GitHub 29 emails you; without a verified address you cannot create a repository. The username lasts: at most 39 characters, only letters, digits and single hyphens, not starting or ending with a hyphen. It appears in repository URLs, @mentions, npm 2,036 scopes on GitHub Packages 29 and ghcr.io image names. A later rename redirects your repositories but not your profile page, and frees the old name for anyone to claim. The public REST API shows any account's record without authentication:

Reading a public account record with the REST APIShell

curl -s https://api.github.com/users/binarybehemoth | jq '{login, id, type, created_at}'

Output

{
  "login": "binarybehemoth",
  "id": 15277380,
  "type": "User",
  "created_at": "2015-10-24T12:02:11Z"
}

The numeric id survives renames, so tools that store identities should key on it. Next, turn on two-factor authentication (required for code contributors since 2023; 2FA and Passkeys), and under Settings, Emails, choose "Keep my email addresses private" so commits carry a noreply address instead of your real one.

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