Marcin Firmuga

Posted on Mar 27

Friday Shipped & Scarred #1: The Day git --force Deleted 130 PC Workman Commits (I Got 90 Back)

#git #buildinpublic #opensource #python

Friday Shipped & Scarred #1: The Day git --force Deleted 130 Commits (And How I Got 90 Back)

First in a weekly series tracking PC_Workman development. The good, the broken, the lessons learned.

Monday: My Heart Stopped

I ran git push --force on PC_Workman.
130 commits became 1 commit.

Eight months of development history disappeared.
Not the code. The code was fine. But the story was gone.

Every "Fixed memory leak" commit. Every "Rebuilt UI (again)" message. Every timestamp proving this project wasn't slapped together over a weekend.
Gone.

The Panic

First reaction: freeze.
Second reaction: check GitHub.

One commit. Master branch. That's it.
Reflog? Empty.

Old branches? None with the history.

GitHub API endpoints? Nothing recoverable.

I'd read about this happening to others. "Always backup before git surgery" they said.
I didn't backup this time...

The Recovery: An Accidental Save

Then I remembered something.

Three weeks ago, I created an archive branch.

Not for backup. Just to keep old files around for reference. Old UI screenshots. Deprecated features. That kind of thing.

I checked it.

90 commits.

Not the full 130. But 90 commits with complete history dating back months.

The archive had saved me.

What I Lost (And What I Kept)

Lost:

40 commits (most recent work)
Detailed messages about recent bugfixes
Exact timeline of last month's changes

Kept:

90 commits showing project evolution
Proof of 8 months of development
Complete rebuild history (I did 4 complete UI rebuilds - that's documented)

Could have lost:

Everything.

90 out of 130 = 69% recovery rate.

Not perfect. But infinitely better than 1 out of 130.

This Week: Cleaning Up What The Disaster Exposed

The git crisis had a silver lining: it forced me to look closely at the repository.

And I found... problems.

Problem 1: Missing CONTRIBUTING.md

Someone opened an issue: "CONTRIBUTING.md link is broken"
I checked. The file was gone.
Lost in the git chaos. Never recovered from the archive.

Solution: Rewrote it from scratch. Better this time. Clearer guidelines. Actual examples.
Result: Contributor can now actually contribute.

Problem 2: AI-Generated Patterns in README

Last week I posted on Reddit asking why my project looked "AI-generated."
Got brutal, honest feedback:

Empty bullet points (- with no text)
Emoji bullets (everywhere)
AI-style phrasing ("Why it's different" with arrow format)

Solution:

Removed all empty bullets
Removed emoji formatting
Rewrote descriptions in plain English
Added actual technical depth from CHANGELOG

Before:

Monitors your PC
Shows graphs

After:
Real-time CPU, GPU, RAM tracking with historical analysis.
Dashboard loads optimized from 800ms to 200ms through widget reuse pattern.

Specific. Technical. No fluff.

Problem 3: Polish UI Text (In An English Project)

I thought I'd translated everything.
I was wrong.

Found Polish text in:

Status messages ("Ładowanie..." = "Loading...")
Dashboard labels ("Użycie CPU" = "CPU Usage")
Error messages
Placeholder tooltips

Files changed:

ui/windows/main_window.py
ui/windows/main_window_expanded.py
ui/components/fan_dashboard.py
ui/components/sidebar_nav.py
ui/pages/fan_control/usage_stats.py
ui/pages/fan_control/hardware_info.py
6 more files

Time spent: 6 hours
Times I thought I was done: 3
Times I actually was done: 1

Problem 4: Marketing Docstrings

Early code had docstrings like:

def update_dashboard():
    """
    Revolutionary real-time dashboard update system.
    Leverages advanced widget reuse patterns for optimal performance.
    Seamlessly integrates with monitoring engine.
    """
    # ... actual code

Nobody talks like this in real code.

After cleanup:

def update_dashboard():
    """Update dashboard widgets. Reuses existing widgets instead of recreating."""
    # ... actual code

Boring. Accurate. Better.

Removed from:

Main window files
Fan dashboard
All page components

Result: Code reads like code, not a sales pitch.

Problem 5: Guide-AI Repository (Side Project)

While cleaning PC_Workman, noticed Guide-AI repo was stale:

No screenshots (people can't see what it does)
No tags
Outdated description

Fixed:

Added QR code demo screenshots
Added proper GitHub topics (react, supabase, ai, qr-codes)
Rewrote description with actual value prop Not perfect. But visible now.

What Shipped This Week

Repository cleanup:

CONTRIBUTING.md rewritten
README cleanup
12 files Polish -> English translation
Marketing docstrings -> technical docstrings
Guide-AI repo updated

Stats:

90+ commits recovered and visible
0 empty bullet points remaining
0 Polish UI strings remaining
0 "leverages advanced" phrases remaining

What Broke

Git recovery wasn't perfect:

Lost 40 commits
Lost detailed timeline of February changes
Had to manually recreate some documentation

Translation took 3x longer than expected:

Found Polish text in 12 files (thought it was 4)
Each pass found more hidden strings
Final check: found 3 more files

Time management:

Planned: 2 hours for cleanup
Actual: 8 hours across 3 days

Lessons Learned

1. Before ANY risky git operation:

git branch backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)

5 seconds. Could save months.

2. "Clean" code has layers

First pass: obvious issues

Second pass: hidden patterns

Third pass: still finding things

Clean once isn't enough.

3. Accidental backups count as backups

That archive branch saved me.
Wasn't intentional. Still worked.
Lesson: Keep old branches longer than you think necessary.

4. Reddit feedback hurts but helps

Being told your project "looks AI-generated" stings.
But it pushed me to actually clean up the issues.
Feedback <3.

Next Week:

-Monday Blueprint Grind #1
-Wednesday Code Autopsy #2

Topic: Process aggregation - how PC_Workman tracks per-process CPU/RAM usage without destroying performance.

Format: Technical deep-dive into hck_stats_engine/process_aggregator.py

Also coming:

First YouTube Short (Code Autopsy video format)
v1.7.0 planning (TURBO mode research)

The Numbers

PC_Workman current state:

Version: 1.6.8
Commits visible: 90+ (recovered)
Development time: 800+ hours
Next milestone: v2.0 → Microsoft Store (Q3 2026)

This week's time investment:

Git recovery: 2 hours
README cleanup: 1 hour
Code translation: 6 hours
Documentation: 1 hour

Total: 10 hours (planned 4, actual 10)

Try It / Break It / Fix It

PC_Workman is open source. MIT licensed.

GitHub: github.com/HuckleR2003/PC_Workman_HCK

Download: Latest release

Follow the journey:

Building in public. Shipped & Scarred every Friday.

Questions, comments, roasts? Hit me up.

About the Author

I’m Marcin Firmuga. Solo developer and founder of HCK_Labs.

I created PC Workman , an open-source, AI-powered
PC resource monitor
built entirely from scratch on dying hardware during warehouse
shifts in the Netherlands.
This is the first time I’ve given one of my projects a real, dedicated home.

Before this: game translations, PC technician internships, warehouse operations in multiple countries, and countless failed projects I never finished.

But this one? This one stuck.
800+ hours of code. 4 complete UI rebuilds. 16,000 lines deleted.
3 AM all-nighters. Energy drinks and toast.

And finally, an app I wouldn’t close in 5 seconds.
That’s the difference between building and shipping.

PC_Workman is the result.

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