Session 4 — Exercises: Publish and Automate

Last updated on 2026-03-03 | Edit this page

Overview

In this session you will publish a website using GitHub Pages and set up a simple GitHub Actions workflow.

Time frame: approximately 75 minutes of hands-on work.

Task 1: GitHub Pages

Level 1 — Enable GitHub Pages

  1. Go to your repository on GitHub.
  2. Navigate to Settings → Pages.
  3. Under Source, select the main branch and the / (root) folder.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Wait 1–2 minutes, then visit the URL shown (typically https://USERNAME.github.io/git-intro-yourname/).
Callout

Checkpoint 1

Your README.md is now rendered as a web page accessible via the GitHub Pages URL. Share the link with your partner to confirm it works.

Level 2 — Improve your site

  1. Edit your README.md to make it look better as a web page:
    • Add a main heading (# My Project Page).
    • Add sections with subheadings.
    • Include a link to your GitHub profile.
  2. Commit and push the changes.
  3. Wait for the site to rebuild and check the updated page.

Level 3 — Add a separate page

  1. Create a new file about.md with information about yourself.

  2. Add a link from README.md to about.md:

    MARKDOWN 

    [About me](about.md)

  3. Commit, push, and verify that the link works on your published site.

If you want more control, create an index.html file:

HTML 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>My Project</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Welcome to My Project</h1>
    <p>This site is published with GitHub Pages.</p>
</body>
</html>

Note: if index.html exists, GitHub Pages will use it instead of README.md.

Task 2: GitHub Actions — Spell Check

Level 1 — Add a spell-check workflow

  1. On GitHub, click Add file → Create new file.

  2. Name the file .github/workflows/spellcheck.yml (GitHub will create the directories automatically).

  3. Paste the following content:

    YAML 

    name: Spell Check
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  spellcheck:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: streetsidesoftware/cspell-action@v6

  4. Commit the file with the message Add spell-check workflow.

Callout

Checkpoint 2

The file .github/workflows/spellcheck.yml exists in your repository. You can see it in the Code tab under .github/workflows/.

Level 2 — Trigger the workflow

  1. Create a new branch (e.g. test-spellcheck).
  2. Edit any file and intentionally introduce a spelling error (e.g. “Tihs is a tset”).
  3. Commit and push the branch.
  4. Open a Pull Request from test-spellcheck to main.
  5. Go to the Actions tab and watch the spell-check workflow run.
Callout

Checkpoint 3

The Actions tab shows a workflow run. It may report spelling errors — that is expected! You have successfully triggered a GitHub Action.

Level 3 — Fix and re-run

  1. Fix the intentional spelling errors in your branch.
  2. Commit and push again.
  3. The workflow will re-run automatically on the updated PR.
  4. Verify that the workflow passes (green check mark).
  1. Go to the Actions tab in your repository.
  2. Click on the workflow run to see details.
  3. Click on the job name (e.g. spellcheck) to see the log output.
  4. On the PR page, you can also see the status check at the bottom.

Task 3: Wrap-Up and Reflection

Level 1 — Review your learning

Write a short summary (3–5 sentences) in your README.md about what you learned in this workshop. Include:

  • The most important concept you learned.
  • Something that surprised you.
  • One thing you want to explore further.

Commit and push.

Level 2 — Create a release

  1. On GitHub, go to Releases → Draft a new release.
  2. Create a tag v1.0.0.
  3. Title it “Workshop Complete”.
  4. Write a brief description of the repository content.
  5. Click Publish release.

Level 3 — Explore further

  • Browse the GitHub Actions Marketplace and find another action that could be useful for your project.
  • Look into Zenodo and how you would link your repository for automatic DOI creation.

Summary

By the end of this session you should have: