Make a new repo with CookieCutter

cookiecutter.md

How to make a repo from a template with CookieCutter

0. Sign up for a GitHub account here
1. Install cookiecutter with pip/conda/apt-get instructions here
2. Choose a cookiecutter template (search on GitHub here)
   • The one I showed was https://mgancita.github.io/cookiecutter-pypackage/ which does the automatic GitHub-Pages, testing, linting, and more
3. Get the link to the cookiecutter repo that ends in .git (should be in the template install instructions)
4. Run cookiecutter reponame.git (e.g. cookiecutter https://github.com/mgancita/cookiecutter-pypackage.git)
5. Follow the prompts to set the options for your new template folder (your name, the repo name, etc.)
6. Change directory to your new empty template (cd new-repo-name)
   • Run ls to check out the file/folders it made
   • Your code goes in /new-repo-name/new-repo-name/mycode.py
   • Your documentation goes in /new-repo-name/docs/
7. Make your folder into a git repository with git init
8. Add and commit the template files/folers as your first commit
   • git add .
   • git commit -m "Set up repo with cookiecutter"
9. Go to GitHub, click + "make a new repository", call it the same thing as your cookiecutter folder (e.g. new-repo-name)
10. Now follow GitHub's instructions to push your new repository to GitHub. Back in the terminal type:
    • git add remote <blah>
    • git push -u origin main
    • refresh the page to see your brand new repo on GitHub
11. (optional) If you used the template above or another one that "Makes a GitHub Pages site with GitHub Actions" then:
    • Go to repository settings
    • Scroll down to GitHub Pages
    • Publish branch gh-pages
    • Go to username.github.io/new-repo-name to see your documentation site
    • You can of course wait to do this step until you write the documentation for your code
    • Note that even if your repo is private this site will be live publicly as soon as you publish the branch in GitHub settings
    • Since the template set up GitHub actions for you, this will update each time you update the /docs/ and push to GitHub