Purpose

The “About” section appears in the right sidebar of every GitHub repository and displays:

  • Repository description
  • Website URL (appears as a clickable link)
  • Topics/tags

This is the feature you see when viewing repos like https://github.com/vercel/next.js - the website link on the right side is configured through the About section.

How to Configure the About Section

Step 1: Locate the Gear Icon

  1. Navigate to your repository’s main page (e.g., github.com/username/repo)
  2. Look for the About section in the right sidebar
  3. Click the gear icon (⚙️) next to “About”

Important: The gear icon is small and easy to miss for new users.

Step 2: Edit Repository Details

A panel will appear with the following fields:

FieldDescription
DescriptionShort summary of what your project does (appears in search results)
WebsiteURL to your documentation, demo site, or homepage
TopicsTags/keywords for discoverability (e.g., “typescript”, “cli”, “database”)

Step 3: Save Changes

  • Fill in the fields you want to update
  • Click “Save changes”
  • The website URL will now appear as a clickable link in the About section

Requirements

Admin/Maintainer Access

You need admin or maintainer permissions to edit the About section. If you don’t see the gear icon or settings option, you don’t have sufficient permissions.

Non-Empty Repository

Important: Empty repositories (repos with no branches) don’t show the About section with the gear icon. You’ll see a “Quick setup” page instead.

Solution: Create at least one branch (commit a README or any file) to enable the About section.

Alternative Method: GitHub CLI

You can also edit the About section using the GitHub CLI:

Terminal window
# Edit description
gh repo edit --description "Your project description"


# Edit website (homepage)
gh repo edit --homepage "https://yourwebsite.com"


# Add topics
gh repo edit --add-topic "typescript" --add-topic "cli"

Best Practices

Website URL

  • Use the live demo URL if you have one (e.g., Vercel/Netlify deployment)
  • Use documentation URL if no demo exists (e.g., GitHub Pages, ReadTheDocs)
  • Use company/project homepage for official projects
  • Format: https://example.com (include https://)

Description

  • Keep it concise (1-2 sentences)
  • Include what the project does and its primary use case
  • Use keywords that help with search discoverability

Topics

  • Add 3-10 relevant topics/tags
  • Use lowercase, hyphenated tags (e.g., “knowledge-graph”, not “Knowledge Graph”)
  • Include language/framework tags (e.g., “typescript”, “react”)
  • Include category tags (e.g., “cli”, “api”, “library”)

Example Configuration

For a knowledge graph CLI tool built with TypeScript:

Description: A knowledge graph CLI for markdown documentation. Semantic search, entity extraction, and relationship mapping powered by DuckDB.


Website: https://github.com/Zabaca/lattice


Topics: knowledge-graph, cli, typescript, duckdb, markdown, semantic-search

Troubleshooting

Can’t Find the Gear Icon

Problem: The gear icon doesn’t appear

Solutions:

  1. Ensure your repository has at least one branch (not completely empty)
  2. Check you have admin/maintainer access
  3. Refresh the page

Problem: Added website URL but it doesn’t show

Solutions:

  1. Ensure you clicked “Save changes”
  2. Refresh the repository page
  3. Check the URL format includes https:// or http://

Topics Not Showing

Problem: Added topics but they don’t appear

Solutions:

  1. Use lowercase, hyphenated format
  2. Avoid spaces in topic names
  3. Each topic should already exist in GitHub’s topic system (they auto-suggest valid topics)

Why This Matters

Discoverability

  • The description and topics help your repo appear in GitHub search results
  • Topics make your repo discoverable through topic pages (e.g., github.com/topics/typescript)

Documentation

  • The website link provides a direct path to your project’s documentation or demo
  • Users can quickly access live examples without reading through the README

SEO Benefits

  • Repository metadata (description, website, topics) is indexed by search engines
  • Helps your repository appear in Google search results
  • See also: GitHub Repository Visibility

Sources

  1. How to update Description on my repository? - GitHub Community
  2. How to change repository description? - GitHub Community
  3. How to Update the Description of Your Repository on GitHub - GitHub Community
  4. Git: Modifying GitHub Repository Description - Copy Programming
  5. Use gh CLI to add or modify repository description - GitHub Community