Did you know that GitHub lets you refer to the default branch of any repository by substituting the branch name with HEAD in the url? This is a very useful trick to write robust code that works regardless of whether the default branch is called main or master, and will keep working when the default branch gets renamed at some point.

We have been working hard behind the scenes on the upcoming release of our new git package named gert, a joint effort from rOpenSci and the Tidyverse team. One of the main features of gert is the out-of-the-box authentication mechanism, which is provided via the new credentials package.