Publishing from AI Studio to GitHub
Once your app looks and behaves exactly how you want it to, it's time to save it permanently.
Remember, Google AI Studio is your workshop. To get your app onto the internet — properly, on an address you control — we first need to move the code to GitHub.
What "pushing to GitHub" means here
When you push your project, AI Studio takes all the files that make up your app — the code, the styling, everything — and sends them to GitHub. You do not need to download anything or move files around yourself. AI Studio does it for you in one click.
What is a repository?
A repository (often called a "repo") is just a project folder on GitHub. Think of it like a folder on Google Drive, but designed for software projects. Your repository will contain all the files for your app. You get to name it whatever you want.
A repository is not a program or a tool you install. It is simply a folder on the GitHub website that holds your project files. You can view it, share it, and come back to it whenever you want.
What happens when you connect AI Studio to GitHub
The first time you push, AI Studio will ask permission to connect to your GitHub account. This is called authorization. You are telling GitHub: "It is okay for AI Studio to create project folders in my account." You only need to do this once.
After that, every time you push, AI Studio creates or updates a repository with your latest files.
Step 1: Finding the GitHub option
In Google AI Studio, look near the top of the screen for Publish (you may also see Share or Deploy nearby) — the same area you used to get your first link. The GitHub option usually lives one click deeper.
- Open the menu beside Publish.
- Choose Push to GitHub.
Google moves these controls around and renames them from time to time — this one has been called "Sync to GitHub" in the recent past. If the wording on your screen differs, you are looking for anything that mentions GitHub. It may also sit under an "Add files" or integrations menu rather than beside Publish.
Step 2: Connecting your GitHub account (first time only)
The first time you do this, AI Studio hands you over to GitHub to get your permission. The next few screens are GitHub's, not Google's, so they will look different. That is expected.
- A GitHub window opens. If you are not already signed in, sign in with the GitHub account you created earlier.
- GitHub shows a page headed something like Authorize Google AI Studio, listing what it is being allowed to do. Read it if you like, then click the green Authorize button.
- If GitHub asks which repositories to give access to, either option works. All repositories is simplest and is what most people choose.
- GitHub may ask you to confirm your password or a login code. This is a normal security check.
- The window closes on its own and returns you to AI Studio.
You only do this once. From then on, AI Studio and GitHub already know each other and pushing skips straight to the next step.
Step 3: Naming your repository
Back in AI Studio, you are asked for a few details about the folder GitHub is about to create.
- Give the repository a name — lowercase, with dashes instead of spaces, like
accounting-quiz. - If you are offered Public or Private, either is fine for this course. Private keeps the code visible only to you; Vercel can still read it once you connect the two.
- Confirm, and wait a few seconds for the files to arrive.
Check it worked: open github.com in a new tab and look at your repositories. The one you just named should be there, with a list of files inside it. If it is not, you may have authorized a different GitHub account than the one you are signed into — sign out of GitHub, sign back in with the right account, and push again.
What just happened?
Google AI Studio just took all the code it wrote for you, created a new folder (repository) in your GitHub account, and saved all the files there. Your code is now safe and ready to be deployed.
So why not just use the link AI Studio gave you?
You have already seen the shortcut work. Back at the start of Part 1 you published an app straight from AI Studio in one click, on a Google-issued address, with no GitHub account, no Vercel account, and no import step. It is genuinely useful and it is worth knowing about.
It is also not what this course does for anything you intend to keep, and now that you have used both routes the reason is worth two minutes of your time.
Publish from AI Studio when…
- You want a link in the next 30 seconds.
- You are showing a colleague a rough draft.
- It is a one-off you will not maintain.
Use GitHub → Vercel when…
- Students will use it for a whole term.
- You want it on your own domain.
- You want a copy of the code you control.
What you give up
- The address is not yours. You get a Google-issued URL that you cannot move. The domain guide in this course walks you from a Vercel address to something like yourname.com — that path starts with GitHub and Vercel.
- The code stays inside Google. Publishing to GitHub gives you your own copy, with a history of every change, that you can hand to any other tool or host later. That portability is the entire point of the middle step — and it is what Part 3 needs in order to get the project onto your own laptop.
- There are terms and limits attached. AI Studio hosting runs on Google's free starter tier, which comes with its own additional terms of service, including usage limits and Google's right to change or withdraw the tier. Read them before you put the link on a syllabus.
Our advice: use the one-click publish freely for drafts and demos — it costs you nothing and the link works. Do the GitHub step for anything you intend to keep. Five extra minutes now is what lets you move the app, rename it, put it on your own domain, or hand it to a different tool a year from now.
It is not a one-way door. AI Studio can also import a project back in from GitHub, so pushing your code out does not mean giving up the chat-and-preview way of working. You are adding a copy you own, not swapping one tool for another.