SpikePrimeGit - Chrome and GitHub plugin
If you’ve spent any time in FIRST LEGO League coaching circles—particularly the Facebook group “FLL Challenge: Share and Learn”, you’ve seen the same story play out again and again: a team loses hours of carefully crafted code because of a browser crash, an accidental file overwrite, or simply forgetting to download their .llsp3 file before the computer shuts down.
The current workaround? Manually downloading files and renaming them with date stamps, storing them in Google Drive or OneDrive. It works, but it’s tedious, error-prone, and teaches students nothing about how professional developers actually manage code.
The Problem: Code Loss Is Too Common
After coaching students through the fundamentals and explaining sensors, motors, and the physics behind robot movement—the last thing any coach wants is for their team to lose progress due to a technical mishap. Yet it happens constantly. The SPIKE Prime web interface doesn’t have built-in version history, and one wrong click can erase an entire competition-ready program.
The Solution: Bring Professional Tools to Student Teams
Enter SpikePrimeGit, a Chrome extension that brings professional version control to FLL teams. With one-click setup, students can automatically sync their SPIKE Prime projects to GitHub, giving them:
- Automatic backups: Every save creates a timestamped version in the cloud
- Version history: Made a mistake? Roll back to any previous version
- Collaboration: Multiple team members can work on projects with a clear history of who changed what
- Portfolio building: Students build a public record of their robotics work, valuable for future applications and scholarships
The extension integrates directly into the SPIKE Prime interface, requiring minimal technical knowledge to use. Students simply save their project, enter a commit message describing their changes, and click “Sync to GitHub.”
Teaching Real-World Skills
Developers have used version control systems like Git for decades because they solve real problems: collaboration, backup, and the ability to experiment without fear. By introducing FLL students to GitHub early, we’re not just preventing code loss, we’re teaching them industry-standard practices they’ll use throughout their careers.
The plugin is now available on the Chrome Web Store, and setup takes about 15 minutes. For coaches managing multiple student projects, GitHub organizations provide a centralized way to monitor progress and provide feedback.
No more lost code. No more date-stamped filenames. Just professional version control for student roboticists.