STUDY · Module 01 · Finance AI Assistant

GitHub Collaboration — Account & Team Repo

Create your GitHub account, connect it to your laptop, and join the team's private repository so you can share your work with Binhan — and he can see, review, and comment on it. Written for non-developers.

Why GitHub?

Private online storage for your work, with full version history — every change saved, nothing lost
Binhan can see your task folders, review your work, and leave comments
No more emailing files back and forth

GOLDEN RULEThe AI drafts — you review, verify, and approve before anything is shared. And: financial data lives in private repositories only.

Part 1 — Create your GitHub account (~5 minutes)

Go to github.com and click Sign up
Enter your email and a password
Choose a username — make it professional (e.g. alice-otter). You can change it later.
Pick the Free plan; skip the extra survey questions
Verify your email address (check your inbox / spam)
Turn on two-factor authentication (recommended): click your profile photo → Settings → Password and authentication → Enable two-factor authentication → use an authenticator app (Google Authenticator / Microsoft Authenticator)
Tell Binhan your GitHub username (or the email you signed up with) so he can add you to the team project

Part 2 — Connect your laptop to GitHub (~10 minutes)

You need two small tools: Git (the program that tracks and shares file versions) and the GitHub CLI (a helper that signs you in). Claude Code can install both for you.

Step 1 — Install Git + GitHub CLI

Copy-paste prompt

Please check if Git and the GitHub CLI (gh) are installed on this computer.
If not, install them:
- Git:        winget install Git.Git          (Windows)   /  brew install git        (macOS)
- GitHub CLI: winget install GitHub.cli       (Windows)   /  brew install gh         (macOS)
Then show me the installed versions.

Step 2 — Log in to GitHub (one-time; you'll do the browser part)

Type this line yourself (the ! at the start runs it directly in this session so the browser login flows smoothly):

Type this line yourself

! gh auth login

Answer the questions: GitHub.com → HTTPS → Login with a web browser → enter the one-time code it shows you in the browser page that opens → click Authorize.

Then type:

Type this line yourself

! gh auth setup-git

(This makes Git remember your GitHub login, so Claude can push and pull for you without passwords.)

NO CLI, NO PROBLEMAsk Claude: "Set up git authentication with a personal access token instead and walk me through generating it."

Step 3 — Set your identity

Copy-paste prompt

Set my git identity: user.name "<your full name>" and user.email "<the email you used on GitHub>".
Then confirm by showing git config --global user.name and git config --global user.email.

Part 3 — Join Binhan's project

Binhan will create a private repository (e.g. otter-finance) and add you as a collaborator — you'll get an invitation email from GitHub. Accept it (the link works for ~7 days; tell Binhan if it expires).

Then get the repository onto your laptop:

Copy-paste prompt

My GitHub username is <your username>. I've been invited to a private
repository. Clone it into this folder using its GitHub URL
(Binhan will give me the link) and show me what's inside.

You can also ask Claude at any time: "Show me my GitHub repos and clone the finance one."

Part 4 — The daily rhythm (one-sentence prompts)

When	Prompt to paste
Start of the day	`Pull the latest changes from the repo.`
During the day	Work as usual in your dated task folder (`2026-09-01 task-name/`)
Before making changes	`Show me what's in the repo vs. what I have locally.`
End of the day	`Commit and push today's work with a clear commit message describing what I did.`
Before sending something important	`Show me what changed in my folder since yesterday.`
When Binhan asks for a review	`Create a pull request for my recent changes.` (optional)

Claude handles all the git commands — you just describe what you want. If it asks for permission, approve it; the description of each action is shown to you.

Part 5 — House rules (important)

Private repos only — never push financial data to a public repository
Never commit secrets — no API keys, no passwords, no .env files. If Claude ever says it needs one, ask Binhan first
Pull before you start, push when you finish — always
One folder per task: YYYY-MM-DD task-name/ with a README.md inside
Never force-push — it rewrites history; if you're ever told "forced update needed", stop and ask Binhan
Commit messages in clear English — Claude writes them, you approve them
When unsure: ask. Nothing is urgent enough to guess on

Part 6 — For Binhan (admin cheat sheet)

Create the team repo: github.com → New repository → name it otter-finance → Private → Create
Add a teammate: repo → Settings → Collaborators and teams → Add people → type their GitHub username/email → they accept the invite
Review their work: open the repo → Commits tab (see every change + who made it), or ask them for a pull request and review it there
Suggested layout: one folder per team member inside otter-finance/ (e.g. alice/, ben/), each keeping the YYYY-MM-DD task-name/ structure — so your 50+ task folders pattern carries over
First-week check: open each member's commits once a day to see what they're working on

Quick Reference Card

Account  → github.com → Sign up → tell Binhan your username
Login    → ! gh auth login   →   ! gh auth setup-git
Identity → "Set my git identity: user.name ... user.email ..."
Clone    → "Clone my private repo into this folder"
Daily    → "Pull"  /  "Commit and push today's work with a clear message"
Rules    → private only · no secrets · pull first · one folder per task
      

Next step: Sample Finance Tasks → — 12 day-to-day copy-paste prompts for your finance work.