Git Cherry-Pick: Pull a Specific Commit from Another Branch

Sometimes you need just one commit from another branch — not a full merge. That's what git cherry-pick is for.

What is cherry-pick?

It copies a single commit and applies it on top of your current branch. The original branch stays untouched.

How to do it

1. Find the commit hash

# Switch to the branch that has the commit you want
git log --oneline -10

# Example output:
# 8f4610d Add user profile page
# a3b2c1d Fix login bug
# ...

Copy the hash of the commit you need (e.g. 8f4610d).

2. Switch to your branch

# Go back to the branch where you want the commit
git checkout my-feature-branch

3. Cherry-pick the commit

# Apply the commit onto your current branch
git cherry-pick 8f4610d

That's it. The commit is now on your branch with a new hash.

4. Verify it worked

git log --oneline -3

# You should see the cherry-picked commit at the top

Handling conflicts

If the commit touches code that your branch has also changed, you'll get conflicts.

# Check which files have conflicts
git status

# Open and fix the conflicting files, then:
git add <fixed-files>
git cherry-pick --continue

To cancel and undo:

git cherry-pick --abort

Cherry-pick multiple commits

# Pick a range of commits (oldest..newest)
git cherry-pick abc1234..def5678

# Pick specific commits one by one
git cherry-pick abc1234 def5678 ghi9012

When to use it

• You need a bug fix from another branch but don't want to merge everything
• A teammate made a commit you depend on, and their branch isn't ready to merge yet
• You accidentally committed to the wrong branch and want to move it

When NOT to use it

• You need all changes from another branch — use git merge or git rebase instead
• The commit depends on previous commits in that branch — cherry-picking it alone might break things

Quick reference

Command	What it does
git cherry-pick <hash>	Apply one commit
git cherry-pick A B C	Apply multiple commits
git cherry-pick A..B	Apply a range of commits
git cherry-pick --abort	Cancel and undo
git cherry-pick --continue	Continue after resolving conflicts