InfluxDB Cloud allows users to create custom dashboards using pre-built templates and their related queries, variables, and settings. To use these templates, users need to collect data from external sources such as GitHub repositories. This can be done using the Telegraf plugin, which is typically used for data collection with InfluxDB. A Docker container has been created by the author that includes the Telegraf plugin already set up with all necessary configuration. Users can instantiate the GitHub template, create a bucket and token, get a GitHub access token, run the container with the required environment variables, and then their GitHub dashboard will work as expected, displaying data from the specified repositories. The process involves navigating to the Templates page, creating a new bucket and token, getting a GitHub access token, filling in the docker-compose file, running it with the docker-compose up command, and finally viewing the dashboard by selecting the correct bucket and repository.