Welcome to the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Today we’re looking at the GitHub Overview.

If you’ve spent any time in software development, you’ve probably heard of GitHub. But let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what it actually is and how NZRT uses it day to day.

GitHub is a cloud-based platform built on top of Git, which is a version control system. In plain terms, that means GitHub gives you a place to store your code, track every change ever made to it, and collaborate with other people without stepping on each other’s work. It also adds a layer of DevOps tooling on top, so you can automate testing, deployment, and all sorts of other workflows right from the same platform.

Now let’s walk through the key concepts you’ll encounter when working with GitHub.

First up, you have repositories. A repository is essentially a storage container for a project. It holds all the code, all the files, and the entire history of every change ever made. Repositories can be public, meaning anyone on the internet can see them, or private, meaning only people you grant access to can view them.

Next, there are forks. When you fork a repository, you create your own independent copy of it. This is really useful if you want to experiment with changes without affecting the original project, or if you’re contributing to someone else’s work and need your own space to develop.

Then you have pull requests. This is the formal process for getting your changes reviewed before they get merged into the main codebase. You make your changes on a separate branch, open a pull request, and other team members can review the code, leave comments, and approve or request changes before anything goes live.

GitHub Actions is the built-in automation engine. You can set up workflows that trigger automatically based on events, for example when someone pushes new code, opens a pull request, or on a regular schedule. This is how you handle things like running automated tests or deploying to a server without doing it manually every time.

Issues are how GitHub handles bug tracking, feature requests, and project planning. You can label issues, assign them to people, and group them into milestones to track progress toward a goal.

Releases let you package up specific versions of your software with release notes and downloadable files, so users or other systems always know exactly what version they’re working with.

GitHub Pages is a handy feature that lets you host static websites directly from a repository. It’s commonly used for documentation sites, project landing pages, or blogs.

And finally, webhooks. A webhook is a way for GitHub to send a real-time notification to another service whenever something happens in your repository. For example, you could have GitHub notify Slack every time a pull request is opened.

Now let’s talk about how NZRT specifically uses GitHub. All NZRT repositories live under the organisation at github dot com slash nzrtnetwork. The general approach is to keep documentation public so it’s accessible, while production code stays in private repositories.

For authentication, NZRT uses SSH keys alongside personal access tokens for command-line work. The preferred tool for local automation and CLI tasks is the GitHub CLI, known as gh. So if you’re scripting something GitHub-related at NZRT, that’s the channel to use.

GitHub Secrets are used to store sensitive information like API tokens and deployment credentials, keeping them out of the codebase but still available to automated workflows.

On the integration side, NZRT has connected GitHub to Slack notifications and email alerts, so the right people hear about pull request reviews and other key events without having to check GitHub manually.

One workflow worth highlighting is the Dolibarr-Custom repository, which is actively monitored by GitHub Actions. That means changes there can trigger automated processes, which is a good example of how GitHub sits at the centre of NZRT’s development pipeline rather than just being a place to store code.

So to pull it all together, GitHub at NZRT is not just a code host. It’s the central coordination point for version control, code review, automation, and integration with the wider toolset. Whether you’re pushing a small fix or managing a full deployment pipeline, GitHub is where it all comes together.

That’s it for this episode of the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Thanks for listening.