Is it possible to create a remote repo on GitHub from the CLI without opening browser?

I created a new local Git repository:

~$ mkdir projectname
~$ cd projectname
~$ git init
~$ touch file1
~$ git add file1
~$ git commit -m 'first commit'

Is there any git command to create a new remote repo and push my commit to GitHub from here? I know it's no big deal to just fire up a browser and head over to Create a New Repository, but if there is a way to achieve this from the CLI I would be happy.

I read a vast amount of articles but none that I found mention how to create a remote repo from the CLI using git commands. Tim Lucas's nice article Setting up a new remote git repository is the closest I found, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Solution 1:

CLI commands for github API v3 (replace all CAPS keywords):

curl -u 'USER' https://api.github.com/user/repos -d '{"name":"REPO"}'
# Remember replace USER with your username and REPO with your repository/application name!
git remote add origin [email protected]:USER/REPO.git
git push origin master

Solution 2:

You can create a GitHub repo via the command line using the GitHub API. Check out the repository API. If you scroll down about a third of the way, you'll see a section entitled "Create" that explains how to create a repo via the API (right above that is a section that explains how to fork a repo with the API, too). Obviously you can't use git to do this, but you can do it via the command line with a tool like curl.

Outside of the API, there's no way to create a repo on GitHub via the command line. As you noted, GitHub doesn't allow shell access, etc., so aside from the GitHub API, the only way to create a repo is through GitHub's web interface.

Solution 3:

This can be done with three commands:

curl -u 'nyeates' https://api.github.com/user/repos -d '{"name":"projectname","description":"This project is a test"}'
git remote add origin [email protected]:nyeates/projectname.git
git push origin master

(updated for v3 Github API)

Explanation of these commands...

Create github repo

    curl -u 'nyeates' https://api.github.com/user/repos -d '{"name":"projectname","description":"This project is a test"}'

• curl is a unix command (above works on mac too) that retrieves and interacts with URLs. It is commonly already installed.
• "-u" is a curl parameter that specifies the user name and password to use for server authentication.
  • If you just give the user name (as shown in example above) curl will prompt for a password.
  • If you do not want to have to type in the password, see githubs api documentation on Authentication
• "-d" is a curl parameter that allows you to send POST data with the request
  • You are sending POST data in githubs defined API format
• "name" is the only POST data required; I like to also include "description"
• I found that it was good to quote all POST data with single quotes ' '

Define where to push to

git remote add origin [email protected]:nyeates/projectname.git

• add definition for location and existance of connected (remote) repo on github
• "origin" is a default name used by git for where the source came from
  • technically didnt come from github, but now the github repo will be the source of record
• "[email protected]:nyeates" is a ssh connection that assumes you have already setup a trusted ssh keypair with github.

Push local repo to github

git push origin master

• push to the origin remote (github) from the master local branch

Solution 4:

If you install defunkt's excellent Hub tool, then this becomes as easy as

hub create

In the words of the author, "hub is a command-line wrapper for git that makes you better at GitHub."