Editing and sharing content with gists

Creating gists

You can create two kinds of gists: public and secret. Create a public gist if you’re ready to share your ideas with the world or a secret gist if you’re not.

Forking and cloning gists

Gists are actually Git repositories, which means that you can fork or clone any gist, even if you aren’t the original author. You can also view a gist’s full commit history, including diffs.

About gists

With gists, you can share single files, parts of files, and full applications with other people. Directories can’t be shared. You can access your gists at http(s)://[hostname]/gist, or http(s)://gist.[hostname] if subdomains are enabled.

Every gist is a Git repository, which means that it can be forked and cloned. The gist editor is powered by CodeMirror.

Types of gists

There are two types of gists: public gists and secret gists. For steps on creating gists, see „Creating gists.“

Public gists

Public gists show up in Discover, http(s)://[hostname]/gist/discover or http(s)://gist.[hostname]/discover if subdomains are enabled, where people can browse new gists as they’re created. They’re also searchable, so you can use them if you’d like other people to find and see your work. After creating a gist, you cannot convert it from public to secret.

Secret gists

Secret gists don’t show up in Discover, http(s)://[hostname]/gist/discover or http(s)://gist.[hostname]/discover if subdomains are enabled, and are not searchable. Use them to jot down an idea that came to you in a dream, create a to-do list, or prepare some code or prose that’s not ready to be shared with the world. After creating a gist, you cannot convert it from public to secret.