Set up your site

There are two ways to start your copy of the template from GitHub: generating or forking. They each have pros and cons:

	Generate (recommended)	Fork
Pros	Clean commit and Actions history; a "fresh start". Can have multiple per user/organization.	A bit easier to update your version of the template.
Cons	A bit harder to update your version of the template.	You get the development history of the template in your repo's commit and Actions history. Can only have one per user/organization. Accidental PRs

Once you decide which approach to take, follow the appropriate setup steps below. We've tried to automate this setup for you as much as possible, within the limitations of GitHub!

Generate

1. Generate a new repo from this template under your account with the button.

   1. Name your repo something like your-lab-website to avoid confusion with the template itself.

   2. Set the repo to "Public" visibility.

   3. Uncheck "Include all branches".

2. In your repo's "⚙️ Settings", give GitHub Actions workflows read and write permissions, and allow them to create pull requests.

3. In your repo's "▶️ Actions", find the "first time setup" workflow and run it manually. Wait for it to complete (~30 seconds).

4. In your repo's "⚙️ Settings", set GitHub Pages to build/publish from the gh-pages branch. Wait for the first build of your site to complete (~3 minutes, multiple Actions workflows will run).

5. Your repo should be initialized and your site should be live! Check your readme for the link.

Fork

1. Fork this repo under your account with the button.

   1. Name your repo something like your-lab-website to avoid confusion with the template itself.

   2. Check "Copy the main branch only".

2. In your repo's "▶️ Actions", acknowledge the warning and enable Actions workflows.

3. In your repo's "⚙️ Settings", give GitHub Actions workflows read and write permissions, and allow them to create pull requests.

4. In your repo's "▶️ Actions", find the "first time setup" workflow and run it manually. Wait for it to complete (~30 seconds).

5. In your repo's "⚙️ Settings", set GitHub Pages to build/publish from the gh-pages branch. Wait for the first build of your site to complete (~3 minutes, multiple Actions workflows will run).

6. Your repo should be initialized and your site should be live! Check your readme for the link.

A lot of the automation in this template relies on GitHub Actions, which sometimes (very rarely) goes down. Be aware of this in case a process in the template ever fails.

GitHub frequently changes and rearranges its web interface, so you may notice slight discrepancies in the instructions above. We've tried to write the instructions more abstractly, linking to GitHub's official documentation for more details.