Getting Started with Codeberg
TLDR: Do you also want to reduce your dependency on non-EU-based tech platforms? Start with a free and open source Git provider! Sign up for Codeberg, create a new empty repo and push your code from an existing GitHub clone to mirror it.
Introduction
There is a lot of concerning stuff happening in the world (geopolitics, AI hype) which is one of the reasons for me to look around for open source, privacy-focused & EU-based alternatives in the tech scene. Take GitHub, for example. I’ve been using GitHub since 2015, and it has served me well. I’ll probably continue to use it for certain things. But should I fully depend on GitHub to keep my source code safe these days? For me, personally, that answer is no. So I started looking around and found Codeberg.
Codeberg
Codeberg is a free, community-driven, non-profit Git hosting platform based in Berlin, Germany. The platform is powered by Forgejo, a self-hosted Git platform. If you’re looking for a privacy-focused, European-based alternative to GitHub, it makes a great second home, or new home, for your code. This post walks through registration, setting up your profile, creating a repository, and pushing a full GitHub repo across, history and all.
Scope: This post is about copying your code and full Git history to Codeberg. It does not move issues, pull requests, labels, milestones, or releases — those live on GitHub’s side and aren’t part of the Git repository. If you want to bring those across too, you’ll need a full migration via codeberg.org/repo/migrate, which is outside the scope of this post.
I’ll describe how I moved my personal website, marcduiker-dev, to Codeberg.
1. Registering an Account
Navigate to codeberg.org and click Register. Fill in the form with a username (this is permanent, so choose carefully), your email, and a password, then complete the CAPTCHA and submit. Codeberg sends a verification link to your email. You must click it before you can create repositories. Once verified, log in for the first time.
2. Creating Your Profile
Head to Settings → Profile to add a display name, bio, avatar, and any website or links you want to share. While you’re in settings, set your visibility and localization preferences, such as language and theme.
This is also where you set up authentication. Because we’ll push over HTTPS with two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, the key step here is creating an access token (covered in the next section). 2FA is strongly recommended; enable it under Settings → Security if you haven’t already.
3. Creating an Access Token (HTTPS with 2FA)
When 2FA is enabled, you can no longer use your account password for Git operations over HTTPS; you authenticate with a personal access token instead. Go to Settings → Applications, give a new token a name, grant it the write:repository scope, and generate it. Copy the token immediately, as Codeberg only shows it once. You’ll paste it in place of a password the first time you push.
Prefer SSH? Generate a key with
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com", copy the public key (cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub), and add it under Settings → SSH / GPG Keys. Test it withssh -T git@codeberg.org. The rest of this post uses HTTPS, but every step works with an SSH remote URL (git@codeberg.org:<username>/<repo>.git) if you go that route.
4. Creating an Empty Repository
In the Codeberg web UI, click + → New Repository and choose a name (matching your GitHub repo makes sense), a description, and a visibility setting. Crucially, leave it empty; do not initialize it with a README, license, or .gitignore. An empty repository avoids conflicts when you push your existing history into it. Once created, note the HTTPS clone URL, which looks like https://codeberg.org/<username>/<repo>.git. For my website, it is https://codeberg.org/marcduiker/marcduiker-dev.git.
5. Pushing Your Branches and Tags to Codeberg
There are two ways to get every branch, tag, and commit onto Codeberg. Pick whichever fits your situation; the end result is the same:
- Option A — Fresh mirror clone. Easiest if you don’t have the repo on your machine, or if you’d rather not run a script to recreate every branch locally. A bare
--mirrorclone grabs all refs in one shot. - Option B — From your existing clone. Best if you already have a working clone and want to push from it. A normal clone only holds local branches for what you checked out, so there’s a little more to do if you have a lot of branches.
Option A: Clone a fresh mirror
A bare mirror clone copies every branch, tag, and bit of history with no per-branch setup. Clone your GitHub repo as a mirror, then push it straight on to Codeberg:
Template commands:
git clone --mirror https://github.com/<user>/<repo>.git
cd <repo>.git
git push --mirror https://codeberg.org/<username>/<repo>.gitFor my website repo specifically:
git clone --mirror https://github.com/marcduiker/marcduiker-dev.git
cd marcduiker-dev.git
git push --mirror https://codeberg.org/marcduiker/marcduiker-dev.gitWhen you trigger the mirror push, you’ll need to provide your Codeberg username and access token. Skip ahead to the Git Credentials section to continue.
Option B: Push from your existing clone
You almost certainly already have a working clone of your GitHub repo, so there’s no need to clone it again. There is one catch, though: a normal clone only creates a local branch for the one you checked out (usually main). Every other branch exists only as a remote-tracking reference (origin/*), and git push only pushes local branches ; so pushing now would silently leave those other branches behind.
So the job is in three parts: pull every branch down as a local branch, add Codeberg as a second remote (leaving your GitHub origin untouched), and push everything across.
Fetch every branch and tag from GitHub
From inside your existing clone, make sure it knows about all the remote branches and tags:
git fetch origin --tagsThis updates your remote-tracking branches but doesn’t create local branches for them. Create a local branch for each one so they’ll all be included when you push.
On macOS or Linux (bash/zsh):
for branch in $(git branch -r | grep -v HEAD | sed 's|origin/||'); do
git branch --track "$branch" "origin/$branch" 2>/dev/null
doneOn Windows (PowerShell):
git branch -r | Where-Object { $_ -notmatch 'HEAD' } | ForEach-Object {
$branch = $_.Trim() -replace '^origin/', ''
git branch --track $branch "origin/$branch" 2>$null
}Run git branch to confirm you now have a local branch for every branch that was on GitHub. (The 2>/dev/null — or 2>$null in PowerShell ; quietly skips branches that already exist locally, like main.)
Add Codeberg as a second remote
I want to keep using GitHub for now until I’ve replaced the CI pipeline and the publish to GitHub Pages, so I don’t want to repoint origin to Codeberg. Instead, I’ll add Codeberg as a second remote named codeberg. This keeps both remotes side by side and leaves my GitHub setup exactly as it was.
Template commands:
git remote add codeberg https://codeberg.org/<username>/<repo>.git
git remote -vFor my website specifically:
git remote add codeberg https://codeberg.org/marcduiker/marcduiker-dev.git
git remote -vgit remote -v should now list both remotes: origin still pointing at GitHub and codeberg at your new repository.
Push all branches and tags
Now push every local branch and every tag to Codeberg:
git push codeberg --all
git push codeberg --tagsGit Credentials
The first push to Codeberg prompts for a username and password. Enter your Codeberg username, and paste the access token from step 3 as the password. To avoid re-entering it on every push, configure Git to store the token in your operating system’s secure keychain rather than in plaintext:
- Windows — use Git Credential Manager, which ships with Git for Windows and stores credentials in the Windows Credential Store.
- macOS — enable the built-in keychain helper with
git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain(docs). - Linux — install Git Credential Manager for Secret Service / GNOME Keyring integration, or use
git config --global credential.helper libsecret(docs).
When the push finishes, open the repository on Codeberg and confirm that all branches, tags, and history are present.
6. Keeping the Mirror in Sync (Optional)
Codeberg has disabled the automatic pull-mirror feature, so it can’t sync from GitHub on a schedule. They explain why in their blog post Mirror repos: easily created, consuming resources forever.
That means syncing is a manual push from your side. How you do it depends on which option you used in step 5.
If you used Option A (a fresh mirror clone), fetch the latest from GitHub and mirror-push it on — --mirror automatically includes any new branches and tags, so there’s no loop to re-run:
git fetch -p origin
git push --mirror https://codeberg.org/<username>/<repo>.gitIf you used Option B (your existing clone), fetch the latest from GitHub and push it on to Codeberg:
git fetch origin --prune --tags
git push codeberg --all
git push codeberg --tagsIf new branches were created on GitHub since your initial push, re-run the branch-creation loop from step 5 first so they exist locally and get picked up by git push codeberg --all.
To automate either approach, wrap the commands in a small script run via cron, or set up a scheduled GitHub Action that pushes to Codeberg.
7. Moving to Codeberg Completely (Optional)
At the moment, my marcduiker-dev repo is mirrored to Codeberg, and I still push to GitHub as my main remote. But if Codeberg is becoming your new home rather than a mirror, you’ll want your everyday working clone to push there instead of GitHub, and maybe retire the GitHub repo eventually.
From step 5 you already have both remotes side by side: origin (GitHub) and codeberg (Codeberg). To make Codeberg your default, swap the names so that codeberg becomes origin. Rename the old GitHub remote out of the way first, then promote Codeberg:
git remote rename origin github
git remote rename codeberg origin
git remote -vBecause the everyday remote is once again named origin, now pointing at Codeberg, your existing branch tracking keeps working, so git push and git pull talk to Codeberg without any further setup. (GitHub is still reachable as github if you want to keep pushing there for a while.) Do a quick git fetch origin and a test push to confirm everything resolves to the new URL.
Before pulling the plug on GitHub, update anything that still points there: CI/CD pipelines and Actions, README badges, documentation links, and any webhooks or integrations. Once you’ve verified Codeberg has the full history and nothing depends on the GitHub repo, archive or delete it under GitHub → Settings → General → Danger Zone. Archiving makes it read-only and is reversible; deleting is permanent, so make sure the Codeberg copy is complete first.
8. What’s Next?
Even though changing Git providers is a relatively small technical step for a personal website, it’s a bigger step to get used to another interface. The developer experience is different, and I need to get used to it. Once I’ve used Codeberg for a few months, I’ll write a follow-up post about my experience with the platform.
The next practical step for me is to move my GitHub Pages site to Codeberg Pages, I’ll write about this in my next post. Once this is done, I plan to archive the GitHub repo and use Codeberg as my main remote for marcduiker-dev.
The great thing about Codeberg & Forgejo is that they are open source and community-driven. If you want to contribute to the platform and make the developer experience better, check out their contributing guide!
