Local vs Remote

Understand the difference between local and remote repositories and how push and pull connect them in the Git workflow.

Local vs Remote repositories

Local Repository	Remote Repository
Lives on your computer	Lives on a server (e.g. GitHub)
Stores commits and branches	Stores shared project history
Works offline	Requires internet
Used for personal development	Used for collaboration and backup

How they are related

Local and remote repositories represent two copies of the same project.

• You work and commit changes locally.

• You synchronize those changes with the remote repository when needed.

Nothing is shared automatically.

Push and Pull

Push	Pull
Local → Remote	Remote → Local
Shares your work	Gets others’ work
Requires commits	Updates your local project
Used after committing	Used before starting work

Commit locally, pull before work, push after work.

Basic examples

# if it's a new project
git push origin main

# if it's an existing project
git pull
git push origin main

Only committed changes are pushed to the remote repository.

No commit = nothing to push.

For deeper details:

Pushing changes →

Pulling changes →