2 · Publish your shop to GitHub

Put your scaffolded shop into a private GitHub repository — its safe home with full history.

create-cartwright already saved your shop as a first version on your computer (a "commit"). Now you'll send that to GitHub so it lives online, privately, with every future change tracked.

Repository = your shop's folder on GitHub

A repository (or "repo") is just your project folder, stored on GitHub. Keep it private so only you can see the code — your live shop is still public, but the source stays yours.

Open your shop in GitHub Desktop.

In GitHub Desktop: File → Add Local Repository, then choose the folder create-cartwright made (e.g. my-shop). GitHub Desktop recognizes it's already a git project.
Publish it.

Click the blue Publish repository button at the top.
- Name — your shop's name (e.g. my-shop).
- Keep "Keep this code private" checked. ✅
- Click Publish repository.
Done.

Your code is now on GitHub. Click View on GitHub to see it in your browser — that web page is your repo. Keep this tab handy; you'll point Vercel at it in the next step.

Create the repo and push, in one command (needs the GitHub CLI from Step 1).

From inside your shop folder:

cd my-shop
gh repo create my-shop --private --source=. --remote=origin --push

This creates a private repo named my-shop on GitHub and uploads your code to it.

No GitHub CLI? Do it in two parts.

Create an empty private repo at github.com/new (don't add a README), then connect and push:

git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/my-shop.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your GitHub username.

Your secret keys are NOT uploaded — that's correct

Cartwright is set up to never push your .env.local (where API keys and database passwords live) to GitHub. You'll add those directly to Vercel in the next step. If you ever see a warning about committing a .env file, stop — keys should never go to GitHub.

Next: Step 3 — Connect Vercel.