United States · Ages 13 to college · GitHub and Git

GitHub Classroom help for students

If an invite link from your teacher now goes nowhere, or classroom.github.com lands you on a farewell message, nothing is wrong with your account. GitHub retired GitHub Classroom on August 28, 2026. Your repositories still exist, and the Git skills your class used still matter, because both replacement tools GitHub named work with GitHub repositories. This page gives the dated facts from GitHub's own notices, then fixes the Git errors that stop students submitting work, with messages from GitHub's documentation and our own runs.

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Live teaching since 2020 · 10,000+ students · Git and GitHub for ages 13 and up

In short

GitHub Classroom stopped working because GitHub retired it on August 28, 2026; no one can sign in to it, and the website was decommissioned. GitHub says accounts, repositories and organizations created through Classroom are not affected. Ask your teacher which tool the class uses now, and keep pushing work with Git as before. Modern Age Coders teaches Git and GitHub live to students aged 13 and up, in a batch or one to one.

Learn it with a teacher

Three courses for Git, GitHub and the code inside

Git is the skill that outlasts any classroom tool. These courses teach it on real repositories.

Git & GitHub Course for Teens course thumbnail

GIT / 01

Git and GitHub for teens

Ages 13 to 18. Commits, branches, pull requests, from zero.

Open the syllabus →
Git & GitHub Course for College Students course thumbnail

GIT / 02

Git and GitHub for college

College students and recent graduates. Team workflows.

Open the syllabus →
Full Stack Web Development for Teens course thumbnail

GIT / 03

Full-stack web for teens

Ages 13 to 18. Sites built and shipped from a GitHub repository.

Open the syllabus →

What happened

GitHub Classroom's retirement, in dates from GitHub itself

Search suggestions now include github classroom discontinued and github classroom sunset. Here is what GitHub itself published, in order.

GitHub Classroom timeline, from GitHub Community announcements and GitHub Docs (read 17 October 2026)
WhenWhat GitHub said
Before May 2026GitHub wrote that Classroom had been "operating under ‘maintenance mode’ for the past 18 months"
May 2026"Starting today, GitHub Classroom will no longer accept new users"; existing classrooms carried on as normal
August 28, 2026"As of August 28, 2026, the GitHub Classroom service has been retired"; no one can sign in and manage classrooms, and the website was decommissioned
September 4, 2026The last Classroom-only data (assignment names, tests defined outside repos, submissions history, LTI rosters) was due for deletion: "final data deleted September 4, 2026"
17 October 2026 (our check)classroom.github.com answered with a permanent redirect (HTTP 301) to GitHub's retirement notice, and GitHub Docs pages still carried the banner "The GitHub Classroom application is closing down and will be retired on August 28, 2026."

What GitHub says is not affected

The retirement notice is specific: "any accounts, repositories, and organisations you created through Classroom are not affected by this service retirement." Your assignment repositories still live on GitHub.com, inside the organization your teacher used.

What went away is the Classroom website and its extra layer: the invitation links, the teacher dashboard, and Classroom data stored outside your repositories.

What GitHub suggested schools use instead

GitHub named two partners that offer "the core GitHub Classroom workflows (assignment distribution, auto grading, and GitHub repo integration)": Codio, and Classroom 50, which GitHub calls "a free, open-source GitHub Classroom alternative developed by the Fifty Foundation".

Which one your class uses, if either, is your teacher's or school's decision. We are not connected with GitHub, Codio or the Fifty Foundation, and we do not recommend one over another.

Sources: GitHub’s retirement notice and transition announcement in GitHub Community, and About GitHub Classroom in GitHub Docs, all read 17 October 2026.

What it means for you

Your situation, and what to do next

Students reach this page from different places. Find yours.

Student situations after the retirement (our guidance, built on GitHub's notices)
Your situationWhat is going onWhat to do
A Classroom invite link does nothingThe Classroom website no longer runsAsk your teacher for the new link or platform
There was an error accepting the assignmentAccepting was a Classroom feature, now retiredSame: your teacher will move the assignment
You want last year's workRepositories were not affectedSign in to GitHub.com and look under Your repositories, or the class organization
You cannot push to an old repositoryYour access depends on the organization's settingsAsk the teacher who owns the organization
Your teacher moved to a new toolGitHub says both partner tools include GitHub repo integrationThe Git steps below still apply
A question about your Classroom dataGitHub handles Classroom data questionsGitHub's notice points to GitHub Education Support

Old deadlines and write access

While Classroom ran, its documentation explained that a teacher could make a deadline a hard cutoff, and that "you will lose write access to your assignment repository after the deadline passes" unless you had an extension.

If an old repository is read-only for you, that may be why. It is a setting in the organization, so only the teacher or organization owner can change it.

Accounts and ages

GitHub's terms say plainly: "You must be age 13 or older." That applies to every GitHub account, whatever tool a class uses on top of it.

For GitHub Education student benefits, GitHub's docs list being "at least 13 years old" among the requirements, and say verified students get GitHub Codespaces for their personal accounts, up to 180 core hours per month.

Submitting work

The Git steps every repository-based class still uses

Classroom only handed out repositories. Submitting work was always ordinary Git: change files, commit, push. These are the four commands, and what our run of Git printed when a step was skipped.

The routine · status, add, commit, pushshell
# Submitting work to a repository  (ours)
git status                  # where am I, what changed?
git add lab1.py             # stage the file
git commit -m "Lab 1"       # take the snapshot
git push origin main        # send it to GitHub

# Before git init, our run of git 2.46 printed:
#   fatal: not a git repository (or any of the
#   parent directories): .git
# Commit before add:
#   nothing added to commit but untracked files present
#   (use "git add" to track)

GitHub’s docs explain that git push takes a remote name, such as origin, and a branch name, such as main. Our runs used a throwaway folder and sent nothing to GitHub.

Fixed · Git does not know who you are yetshell
# First commit on a new computer  (ours)
# Our run printed:
#   Author identity unknown
#   *** Please tell me who you are.
# Fix, as git itself suggests:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

# Use the email on your GitHub account, so your
# commits are linked to you.

Git stops a first commit on a new computer until it has a name and email. On a shared school computer, leave out --global to set them for one repository only, as Git’s own message suggests.

  1. Clone once. Copy the clone URL from the repository page, as GitHub’s docs advise, rather than typing it.
  2. Work in that folder. Commands run anywhere else print fatal: not a git repository.
  3. Check with git status before every commit. It lists changed and untracked files.
  4. Add, then commit with a message that says what changed, such as "Lab 1: loops working".
  5. Push to the right branch. Our run of git push origin master on a main branch printed error: src refspec master does not match any.
  6. Open the repository on GitHub.com and check that your latest commit is there. If it is not on GitHub, your teacher cannot see it.

Push and clone errors

The errors that stop a submission, and the documented fixes

When a push fails the night before a deadline, the message usually names the problem. These come from GitHub’s documentation and from our own runs.

Rejected · the remote has work you do notshell
# The push GitHub refuses  (from GitHub's docs)
$ git push origin main
 ! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to ...

# Fix from the same page: get the remote work first
git pull origin main
# resolve anything Git asks about, then
git push origin main

GitHub’s explanation: if your local copy is "behind" the repository you are pushing to, you get non-fast-forward updates were rejected, and you must fetch the changes before pushing yours.

Git and GitHub errors students meet (messages from GitHub Docs and from our run of git 2.46.0, 17 October 2026)
MessageWhat it meansFix
The requested URL returned error: 403GitHub refused access over HTTPSGitHub’s docs: "you must authenticate with a personal access token instead of your password"
Error: Repository not foundA typo in the URL, or no permissionCheck git remote -v; ask the owner for access
src refspec main does not match any (ours)No commit yet, or a different branch nameCommit first; check the branch with git status
'origin' does not appear to be a git repository (ours)No remote set up in this folderClone the repository again, or add the remote your teacher gave you
Author identity unknown (ours)Git has no name and email on this computergit config user.name and user.email
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (ours)New files were never addedgit add the files, then commit

Passwords do not work for Git over HTTPS

If you type your GitHub password when Git asks for one, you may get a 401 or 403 error. GitHub’s cloning help is clear that you need a personal access token instead.

GitHub’s docs also describe Git Credential Manager, which stores credentials so you do not have to paste a token each time. On a shared school computer, ask before saving credentials.

Repository not found is often a permissions message

GitHub’s docs explain that this error means the repository "does not exist or you do not have permission to access it". One cause to rule out with class repositories: signing in with a different GitHub account from the one the teacher added.

Run git remote -v to see the URL your folder uses, compare it with the repository page, and check which account you are signed in to.

Test results

Green checks and red Xs: reading automatic test results

Classroom’s autograding ran on GitHub Actions, and GitHub says Classroom 50 also configures autograding via GitHub Actions. So the same signals may still appear on your commits, whatever tool your teacher picked.

A green checkmark

GitHub’s docs: "If all tests succeed for a commit, you'll see a green checkmark." Your latest pushed code passed the tests the teacher set.

A red X

The same page: "If any tests fail for a commit, you'll see a red X." Click it to open the log, which shows compilation errors and failed tests.

The Actions tab

GitHub says "The Actions tab shows the full history of test runs." Open the latest run and read the first failure, not the last line.

How to read a failing test log

Scroll to the first line marked as an error. A compile error means the code never ran; fix that before anything else. A failed test usually prints what it expected and what your code produced.

Run the same input on your own computer and compare. The difference between expected and actual output is the clue.

What we will not do

We will explain what a failing test is checking and teach the idea behind it. We will not write code to pass a graded test for you.

Repository owners can see your commit history. Work you understand is the only kind worth submitting.

Beyond one class

Git as a skill, not a submission button

Classroom tools come and go, as this year showed. Version control stays. This is how we teach it across a first term.

A first term of Git and GitHub (our plan for ages 13 and up, adjusted for each learner)
ClassesWhat the student practicesWhy it matters
1 to 2Install Git, init, add, commitSnapshots you can always go back to
3 to 4Clone, push, pull with GitHubWork that lives beyond one laptop
5 to 6Branches and mergesTrying ideas without breaking the main version
7 to 8Resolving conflicts and rejected pushesCalm fixes at deadline time
9 to 10Pull requests and reviewsHow teams, and many classes, share feedback
11 to 12A portfolio repository with a READMESomething to show beyond a grade

For the difference between the two names, read Git vs GitHub. Students taking Java for AP may also want AP Computer Science A online classes, and anyone stuck on a bug rather than a push can use how to debug code.

Where a student is

Four stages with Git

From uploading files to managing history.

Stages of Git skill (ours)
StageWhat it looks like
1. UploaderDrags files into GitHub in the browser
2. CommitterUses add, commit and push, and panics at errors
3. FixerReads rejected pushes and fixes them with pull
4. CollaboratorBranches, opens pull requests and reviews others

For parents

The retirement of GitHub Classroom changed a website, not the skill. Git is used far beyond school, and your teenager's repositories are still there.

GitHub accounts are for ages 13 and up, under GitHub's own terms.

For students

Run git status before anything else. It tells you where you are and what changed.

Check GitHub.com after every push. If the commit is not there, it was not submitted.

The catalogue

Nine courses where work lives in repositories

Live online classes with a regular teacher, in a batch or one to one.

I

Version control

Ages 13 and up

GIT / VC / 01

Git and GitHub for teens

From first commit to pull request.

Open the syllabus

GIT / VC / 02

Git and GitHub for college

Team workflows and reviews.

Open the syllabus
II

High school

Ages 13 to 18

GIT / HS / 03

Full-stack web for teens

Projects deployed from GitHub.

Open the syllabus
III

College and adults

Ages 18 and up

GIT / PRO / 02

Full-stack web for college

Front end, back end, deploy.

Open the syllabus

GIT / PRO / 03

Data structures and algorithms

For coursework and interviews.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Live Git lessons on your real repositories

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Weekdays

Evening batches across US time zones.

Weekends

Room for longer repository projects.

1-on-1

Before a deadline, at a time you pick.

Same teacher

All the way through the term.

Your terminal

We fix Git on your computer.

Real repositories

Practice on your own projects.

Your code stays yours

We teach; you submit.

Coast to coast

Live online in every state.

Batch or private

Fifteen to twenty, or one learner.

Student work

Repositories and projects from our students

Projects from learners who once could not get a push to go through. Browse more on the student labs page.

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Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

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GuardianX

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Fees

Fees

Git and a GitHub account cost nothing. The fee pays for teaching, billed monthly in US dollars, with no contract running to the end of the semester, and you can leave once any month is over.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

  • A free first lesson
  • Bring the push that failed
  • No card needed
Book it

Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

  • Fifteen to twenty students
  • One regular teacher
  • A batch time you choose
  • Charged monthly
Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

  • Private Git lessons
  • At your convenience
  • Your own repositories
Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Parents' Google reviews, reproduced word for word.

★★★★★

"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

Ria Mukherjee

Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

Samriddha Mondal

Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

Questions students ask

GitHub Classroom and Git: common questions

Is GitHub Classroom shutting down?

It already has. GitHub says that as of August 28, 2026 the GitHub Classroom service has been retired, and nobody can sign in to manage classrooms on it.

Why is GitHub Classroom not working?

Because the service was retired on August 28, 2026 and its website was decommissioned. Invite links and assignment acceptance no longer work. Ask your teacher which platform the class uses now.

What happened to my GitHub Classroom assignments?

GitHub says accounts, repositories and organizations created through Classroom are not affected by the retirement. Your assignment repositories should still be on GitHub.com in the class organization.

What replaced GitHub Classroom?

GitHub named two partners, Codio and Classroom 50 from the Fifty Foundation, which it describes as a free, open-source alternative. Your school or teacher decides what your class uses.

How do I submit an assignment to a GitHub repository?

In the repository folder, run git add for your files, git commit with a message, then git push origin main. Then open the repository on GitHub.com and check your latest commit is there.

Why does git push say rejected (non-fast-forward)?

The repository on GitHub has commits you do not have yet. GitHub suggests running git pull for that branch to bring them in, then pushing again.

Why does Git say error 403 when I push?

GitHub refused access. GitHub says you must authenticate with a personal access token instead of your password, and that you need an account with access to the repository.

How old do you have to be to use GitHub?

GitHub's terms say you must be age 13 or older to have an account.

When are classes for US students?

Weekdays or weekends, flexible. Choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

How much do Git and GitHub classes cost?

Your first lesson is free. Then fees are paid month by month for live teaching, and the fees section on this page shows the US dollar amount.

Elsewhere on this site

Related pages

Next steps for US students working with Git.

Coding classes in the USA

Our hub for families and students in the US.

Git vs GitHub

Two names, two different things.

AP CSA online classes

Java for the AP course.

Java classes for teens

Java beyond the exam.

How to debug code

When the code, not Git, is broken.

Coding for teens

Every teen track in one place.

Google Colab help for students

Google Colab not working? Runtimes, files, Drive and limits, explained.

Jupyter Notebook errors for students

Jupyter Notebook errors students hit, what they mean, and how to fix them.

Python indentation errors explained

Every Python IndentationError message, what it means, and how to fix it.

Start here

Book a free first lesson

Tell us the class, the repository and the error. In the first lesson the teacher works through your real push with you.

Want to know what a lesson looks like? See our approach, or open the course pages for week-by-week detail.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · connect@modernagecoders.com

We teach over live video from India, so there is nowhere to travel to and any US student can join. The quickest way to reach us is WhatsApp.

Your first lesson is free; we will not ask for card details.

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

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