People on Twitter have recently discovered a GitHub secret. If you create a new GitHub repository with the same name as your profile name, you can add a README.md to your GitHub profile 1.

How to create a GitHub profile README.md

  1. Create a new GitHub repository. You’ll see two mandatory options when creating your repository - the ‘Owner’ dropdown field and the ‘Repository name’ input field. Ensure that the ‘Repository name’ value is the same as the value in the ‘Owner’ dropdown field. At the time of writing this feature hasn’t rolled out to all users - if it’s been enabled for you, you’ll see a message displayed beginning ‘You found a secret’.

  2. Check the ‘Initialise this repository with a README’ checkbox.

  3. Click the ‘Create repository’ button.

  4. After GitHub creates your repository, you’ll be dropped into a view of the default template README.md. Click to edit it and add your own information using markdown 2.

  5. Commit your changes.

  6. Navigate to your own profile page to check it out.

  1. You can see my own README.md on my GitHub profile. ↩︎

  2. For tips on writing markdown check out the Markdown Guide. ↩︎