Distinguish Git, GitTree and your hosting provider

• Explain why Git itself records a local commit without a GitHub, GitLab or GitTree account.
• Distinguish native Git from GitTree-only and provider-dependent features.
• Read a missing-repository message without treating it as missing Git.
• Identify what this introductory inspection changes and what it leaves untouched.

Start with no course repository: nothing has been initialized yet. Do not open a work repository for this lesson. You create the course repository in lesson 4.

The terminal examples were checked with Git 2.52.0 on macOS and on Ubuntu 24.04. Your version line can differ; lesson 2 explains installation and GitTree's Git 2.39.0 minimum. Another shell can format errors a little differently. The GitTree steps were recorded in GitTree 1.4 on Ubuntu 24.04. On macOS, press Command and Option where Windows and Linux use Ctrl and Alt.

Native Git needs no account for local work. GitTree asks you to sign in with your email or a Git provider; the Free plan then covers every local Git feature, and your repositories stay on your computer. The video was recorded before signing in became required, so it does not show that dialog. Executing Nour, provider integrations and AI drafting requires Pro or an applicable trial. Reading this course does not grant provider permissions.

Imagine a project whose working files contain a landing-page headline. Git can record a commit: a snapshot and its relationship to previous history. It stores repository data locally. A provider account is not a prerequisite for that local history.

GitTree is a desktop client for Git on macOS, Windows and Linux. It presents repository state and sends chosen operations to the user's installed Git. It also has app-specific state, such as workspaces, preferences and its own Undo journal. Those features do not turn GitTree into a hosting server.

A hosting provider stores a remote repository and may supply review objects, issues and CI services. In this course the primary CI/CD recording uses GitLab and a runner locally on the author's machine. GitTree can inspect supported provider results; the runner executes the job.

An analogy can help: Git keeps the project's recorded editions, GitTree is your workbench for inspecting and changing them, and the host is a shared service with its own rules. The analogy stops at permissions and recovery: a local workbench does not automatically reverse an action accepted by a server.

Use three labels when reading later lessons:

GitLab calls its review object a merge request; GitTree's shared commands can say Pull Request. A native merge is a different operation. We will make that distinction practical in lesson 61.

State changes in this lesson

There is no course working tree, index, local branch or remote-tracking ref yet. The terminal inspections create none. Opening New Tab and reading the guide do not initialize a repository or push anything. Closing Feature Guide can update its app-local last-seen-version preference; that is separate from repository state.

Do not infer a provider capability from a generic feature name. A service may offer an API action that GitTree's adapter does not currently expose.

Run this read-only version query:

git --version

Observed output on the authoring machine:

git version 2.52.0

It proves that this shell can find Git and reports that executable's version. It does not prove that a repository, GitTree installation or provider connection exists.

In a folder that is not a repository, inspect status:

git status --short

Observed output from the non-repository authoring folder:

fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

The command exits nonzero. This is the intended negative case: Git ran, but the folder has no repository context. Do not run Init merely to remove this message; lesson 4 creates the intended course folder.

To inspect Git's own command catalog:

git help --all --no-aliases --no-external-commands

Exact excerpt from the captured Git 2.52.0 output (the video adds | head -12 to show only the first lines):

Main Porcelain Commands
   add                     Add file contents to the index
   am                      Apply a series of patches from a mailbox
   archive                 Create an archive of files from a named tree
   backfill                Download missing objects in a partial clone

This is a labeled excerpt, not the whole output. The normalized captured catalog has 170 built-in command/interface entries. A listed manual, helper or optional tool is not automatically a GitTree button.

1. Open the app and choose New Tab, command tab.new. Default shortcut: Command+T on macOS, Ctrl+T on Windows/Linux. Expect the repository-opening screen; create nothing.
2. Open Command Palette…, command palette.open, with Command+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P. Type Feature Guide, then choose the exact Feature Guide result. Expect the Feature Guide sheet.
3. Alternative entry: Alt+H opens Feature Guide directly; on macOS this is Option+H. Default shortcuts can be customized, so inspect the live shortcut help if it differs.
4. Choose Features. In Search features, type CI/CD and inspect the named CI/CD runs card. With no repository open, its source-defined prerequisite message is Open a repository to use it. A description is not evidence that a job has run.
5. Choose Integrations. With no repository open, expect Open a repository to see what its provider supports. Do not connect an account or create a remote in this lesson.
6. Press Escape to close the guide and restore focus. Keep New Tab open. The repository graph is still absent because we have not created the project.

You can name the owner of each operation: Git for local version history, GitTree for its desktop workflow/app state, and the provider/runner for hosted review and CI. The course still has no repository or graph: you end exactly where you started, now knowing who owns what.

• “Commit means upload.” A local commit records repository history. Push is a separate action, taught with remote identity and permission.
• “GitTree account means provider access.” Author identity, app access and provider credentials are separate.
• “A feature card proves support everywhere.” Read its actual repo, access and provider conditions.
• “A passing pipeline proves my current files.” A run identifies a particular commit; uncommitted files and newer SHAs need their own checks.

If the shell cannot find Git, stop the terminal portion and follow lesson 2. The missing-repository error above is different: Git exists but the current folder is not a repository.

If you cannot find Feature Guide, open Command Palette… and type Feature Guide. An older GitTree may not have it yet; the ideas in this lesson do not depend on it.

If you opened a personal repository accidentally, stop before any mutation. Opening or closing a tab does not delete its repository; inspect unsaved editor prompts rather than discarding a buffer. This lesson needs no reset, discard, trash recovery or Undo.

Answer each question, then read why. Questions marked “Required” count toward completing the lesson.

1. Question 1 of 6

   Question 1 of 6

   Maya creates a local commit without a hosting account. Which tool owns its history?

   Choose one answer.

   Git

   GitTree's account service

   GitLab's runner

   Check answer
2. Question 2 of 6

   Question 2 of 6

   Choose every accurate classification.

   Choose every answer that applies.

   A feature card grants provider permission

   CI status belongs to a particular run and commit

   A theme preference is GitTree app state

   A local commit uploads every visible file

   Check answer
3. Question 3 of 6

   Question 3 of 6Required

   No repository is open. You read Feature Guide → Integrations, then close it. What exists afterward?

   Choose one answer.

   main has its first commit

   A GitLab job now exists

   No course repository has been created

   Check answer
4. Question 4 of 6

   Question 4 of 6Required

   Change the input: a disposable repository is open and a later lesson creates a local commit without pushing. What is justified?

   Choose one answer.

   New local history exists; upload is not proved

   CI necessarily passed for it

   Every provider has the commit

   Check answer
5. Question 5 of 6

   Question 5 of 6

   git --version succeeds; git status --short says “not a git repository.” What does that support?

   Choose one answer.

   Git ran but this folder lacks repository context

   A provider token is required

   Hard reset is the safe first fix

   Check answer
6. Question 6 of 6

   Question 6 of 6Required

   Which evidence completes this lesson's practice?

   Choose one answer.

   Supply any green screenshot

   Finish the video

   Classify theme/local commit/runner job and confirm no project was initialized

   Check answer

Without initializing anything, use the three labels to classify: editing an app theme, recording a local commit, and a runner executing a job. Then inspect New Tab and confirm that no GitTree Features graph exists yet. The observable result is correct classification plus the unchanged no-repository checkpoint.

• Git records local history independently of a hosting account.
• GitTree's app state and native Git repository state have different owners.
• Provider capabilities, permissions and actual run identity determine connected results.

• Git vs GitHub: what is the difference?
• Download GitTree for macOS, Windows and Linux
• GitTree plans: what Free includes

Repository — مستودع; commit — إيداع; working tree — مجلد العمل; staging area — منطقة التجهيز; ref — مرجع; provider — مزوّد; command palette — لوحة الأوامر.