Codeigniter and phpstorm and github

I don't know phpstorm, I use VSCode, but I don't believe that it hinders our understanding.
It is a single server, Apache, with one or more virtual servers. You will then have a production server, localhost, and a development server. Both can be used simultaneously, in different tabs, in a browser, for example.

My biggest difficulty will be in relation to git/github, because I use a Microsoft tool, which owns GitHub, called Github Desktop, which is integrated with Git and VSCode, with a graphical interface. It allows you to independently create and manage repositories locally and on GitHub. As a phpstorm user I believe this is out of the question.

xampp htdocs / creating repository with GitHub Desktop

 

If plan A fails, relax... the alphabet is 26 letters