Building a Research Portfolio
Website with No Coding

First, create a folder on your computer for the website (e.g., a folder called website on your Desktop). Then open Claude Desktop and click the "Code" tab at the top — this activates Claude Code.

1. Create a new folder anywhere on your computer (e.g., Desktop/website)
2. Open Claude Desktop and click the "Code" tab at the top
3. Click "Add folder" or the folder icon, then select the folder you just created

Once connected, just describe what you want in plain English — no HTML or coding knowledge needed.

Claude Code will generate all the files directly inside the connected folder. To make changes, just describe what you want: "Change the header color to dark green" or "Add a new publication" — Claude Code handles the rest.

What is GitHub?
GitHub is a cloud service for storing and managing files — think of it as "Google Drive for code." It keeps a full history of every change you make, and when connected to Cloudflare Pages, it automatically publishes your site whenever you send new files.

Creating an account (first time only)

1. Go to github.com and click "Sign up"
2. Enter your email address, set a password and username, then complete email verification

Creating a repository

A repository is your project folder on GitHub — it corresponds one-to-one with the local folder you created in Step 1.

1. Log in to github.com and click the "+" icon in the top right → "New repository"
2. Enter a repository name (e.g., my-website — letters, numbers, and hyphens only)
3. Select Public (required for Cloudflare Pages to access it)
4. Click "Create repository"

What is GitHub Desktop?
GitHub Desktop is an app that lets you send files to GitHub using buttons — no command-line knowledge needed. Download and install it from desktop.github.com.

First-time setup

1. Open GitHub Desktop and click "Sign in to GitHub.com" — use the account you created in Step 2
2. Go to "File" → "Add Local Repository" and select the folder from Step 1
3. If prompted with "This folder does not appear to be a Git repository," click "Create Repository"
4. Type a short description in the "Summary" field at the bottom left (e.g., Initial commit)
5. Click "Commit to main" — this records your changes locally
6. Click "Publish repository" in the top bar — this sends your files to GitHub
7. Uncheck "Keep this code private" and click "Publish Repository"

Connect your GitHub repository to Cloudflare Pages to publish the site automatically.

1. Log in to dash.cloudflare.com (create a free account at cloudflare.com if needed)
2. In the left menu, go to "Workers & Pages" → "Create" → "Pages" tab
3. Click "Connect to Git" and authorize your GitHub account
4. Select the repository from Step 2 and click "Begin setup"
5. Leave "Framework preset" as "None", leave Build command and Build output directory blank, then click "Save and Deploy"

From this point on, every push to GitHub automatically triggers a new deployment. No manual action needed.

Once your site is live, all future updates follow the same no-code workflow — just describe the change to Claude Code, then push.

After Claude Code edits the files, commit and push with GitHub Desktop:

1. Confirm your changed files appear in the left panel of GitHub Desktop
2. Type a short commit message in the Summary field (e.g., Add new publication)
3. Click "Commit to main" → then "Push origin"

Because every file in your folder ends up on GitHub, it's worth setting up two things from the start: a list of files to exclude from uploads, and the option to switch your repository to private later.

Using .gitignore to exclude files

A .gitignore is a plain text file placed at the root of your repository. Anything listed in it is excluded from uploads. It is commonly used to keep OS-generated files, editor settings, and other local-only items out of the repository.

Create a file named .gitignore at the root of your folder. The example below is a safe starting point — you can simply ask Claude Code to "create a .gitignore" and it will generate one for you.

Switching the repository to Private

If you do not need your source code to be publicly visible, you can switch the repository to Private. Only you and the collaborators you invite will see the contents. Your published site (the pages.dev URL) remains accessible to everyone — hosting is unaffected.

Cloudflare Pages connects through an OAuth-based GitHub App, so once you have completed the initial connection while the repository is Public, you can switch to Private afterwards and automatic deployments will keep working. To stay safe, confirm that the first Cloudflare deploy has succeeded before switching to Private.

1. Open the repository page on GitHub (e.g., github.com/your-username/your-repo)
2. Click the "Settings" tab
3. Scroll to the bottom — under "Danger Zone", click "Change repository visibility" → "Change visibility"
4. Choose "Make private" and type the repository name to confirm

Note: If you want to start Private from the beginning, simply choose "Private" in Step 02. You will then need to explicitly grant the Cloudflare GitHub App access to that specific repository during the OAuth setup.

A newly published site is not immediately visible on Google. The following steps help Google discover and index your pages sooner.

• Register your site in Google Search Console and submit your sitemap
• Write accurate <title> and <meta name="description"> tags in the <head> of each page
• Add your site URL to external researcher profiles (ResearchMap, ORCID, institutional pages) to build inbound links

Once indexed, searching your name on Google should bring your site to the top of the results.