Can I create a local branch using the web interface?

[David DeWitt]

I've been encouraged to move away from the desktop application and do all of my tasks from the GitHub web interface.  How do I create a local branch from the web interface?

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @David DeWitt,

welcome to the community. You might want to check out the Welcome Center to get started here.

Is your question actually about GitHub? Or did you mean Bitbucket? This forum is all about Atlassian tools - so it might be better to ask your question on the github community.

Since I use git myself, I can tell you that you cannot create a local branch directly from any web interface, but what you can do is the following:

• create a branch in the web interface
• then you can fetch the new branch and switch to it with the following commands in a terminal session in your local repository:

  git fetch
  git checkout NAME-OF-BRANCH

  You can probably also do this with your desktop application.

Cheers,
Matthias.

[David DeWitt]

Thanks Matthias!  Sorry about the confusion with which community to ask the question!?!?!  Your answer solves my issue.  Thanks again.  I'll make sure to separate Git and Atlassian issues in the future and post to the appropriate forums.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

No worries, @David DeWitt! You can still always ask - and maybe get your answer even if there might be better places to ask your question. :)