Setting up your Git config, including your name and email, is crucial when starting a new project to avoid misattributed commits or incorrect identities.
Configuring your Git identity ensures that commits are correctly linked to your profile and maintains a consistent commit history in team projects.
Git config can be set using --local, --global, and --system scopes, with --local being project-specific, --global for user-wide settings, and --system for system-wide configurations.
Best practices include using --local for project-specific identities, avoiding --system unless necessary, and always verifying Git config settings before committing to a new repository.