Git Commands & Workflows Guide

Stop second-guessing your Git commands. This visual guide covers every branching strategy in use today — GitFlow, GitHub Flow, trunk-based development — with decision trees for merge vs rebase, interactive rebase recipes, and the "oh no" recovery commands that save your commit history. Includes CI/CD integration patterns showing how each workflow connects to automated pipelines.

What's Included

• Branching Strategies — GitFlow, GitHub Flow, Trunk-Based Development with visual diagrams
• Merge vs Rebase — Decision tree, conflict resolution, when to use each
• Advanced Git Commands — Cherry-pick, stash, reflog, bisect, worktree
• Interactive Rebase Recipes — Squash, reorder, edit, split commits
• Recovery & Undo Guide — Undo commits, recover deleted branches, fix detached HEAD
• CI/CD Integration Patterns — Branch protection, automated testing triggers, release automation
• Git Hooks Reference — Pre-commit, pre-push, commit-msg hooks with examples
• .gitconfig Optimization — Aliases, diff tools, merge strategies, global ignores

Preview / Sample Content

Merge vs Rebase — Decision Tree

Should I merge or rebase?
│
├── Is this a shared/public branch (main, develop)?
│   └── YES → Always MERGE (never rewrite shared history)
│
├── Is this my local feature branch?
│   ├── Want clean linear history? → REBASE onto main, then merge
│   └── Want to preserve branch topology? → MERGE
│
├── Are there merge conflicts?
│   ├── Simple conflicts → Rebase is fine
│   └── Complex multi-commit conflicts → Merge is safer
│
└── Team convention?
    ├── "Squash and merge" PRs → Rebase locally, squash on merge
    └── "Merge commit" PRs → Merge to preserve full history

Essential Git Commands You Keep Forgetting

# Undo last commit but keep changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit and unstage changes
git reset --mixed HEAD~1

# Completely discard last commit and changes (DANGEROUS)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Amend last commit (message or add forgotten files)
git add forgotten-file.py
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Stash with a descriptive name
git stash push -m "WIP: refactoring auth module"

# Apply specific stash without removing it
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Cherry-pick a commit from another branch
git cherry-pick abc1234

# Cherry-pick without committing (stage changes only)
git cherry-pick --no-commit abc1234

# Find which commit introduced a bug (binary search)
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD
git bisect good v1.0.0
# Git checks out middle commit — test it, then:
git bisect good   # or git bisect bad
# Repeat until the guilty commit is found
git bisect reset

# Recover a deleted branch (within ~30 days)
git reflog
git checkout -b recovered-branch abc1234

# See what changed between two branches
git log main..feature --oneline
git diff main...feature --stat

Interactive Rebase Recipes

# Squash last 4 commits into one
git rebase -i HEAD~4
# In editor, change 'pick' to 'squash' (or 's') for commits 2-4:
# pick   abc1234 Add user model
# squash def5678 Fix typo in user model
# squash 111aaaa Add validation
# squash 222bbbb Update tests

# Reorder commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3
# Simply rearrange the lines in the editor

# Edit a commit message 5 commits back
git rebase -i HEAD~5
# Change 'pick' to 'reword' (or 'r') on the target commit

# Split a commit into two
git rebase -i HEAD~3
# Change 'pick' to 'edit' on the target commit
git reset HEAD~1
git add file1.py && git commit -m "Part 1: add model"
git add file2.py && git commit -m "Part 2: add tests"
git rebase --continue

Git Hooks — Pre-commit Example

#!/bin/sh
# .git/hooks/pre-commit — runs before every commit

# Prevent committing to main directly
branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
if [ "$branch" = "main" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: Direct commits to main are not allowed."
    echo "Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature"
    exit 1
fi

# Check for debug statements
if git diff --cached --name-only | xargs grep -l "debugger\|console\.log\|import pdb" 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "ERROR: Debug statements found in staged files."
    exit 1
fi

# Run linter on staged Python files
STAGED_PY=$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACM | grep '\.py$')
if [ -n "$STAGED_PY" ]; then
    python -m ruff check $STAGED_PY || exit 1
fi

exit 0

Quick Reference Table

Command	What It Does	Safe on Shared Branch?
git merge feature	Merge with merge commit	✅ Yes
git rebase main	Replay commits on top of main	❌ Local only
git reset --soft HEAD~1	Undo commit, keep staged	❌ Local only
git reset --hard HEAD~1	Undo commit, discard all	❌ DANGEROUS
git revert abc123	Create inverse commit	✅ Yes
git cherry-pick abc123	Copy commit to current branch	✅ Yes
git stash	Temporarily shelve changes	✅ Local operation
git reflog	View all HEAD movements	✅ Read-only
git bisect	Binary search for bad commit	✅ Read-only
git worktree add	Multiple working directories	✅ Yes

Comparison: Branching Strategies

Aspect	GitFlow	GitHub Flow	Trunk-Based
Branches	main, develop, feature, release, hotfix	main + feature	main + short-lived feature
Complexity	High	Low	Low
Release Style	Scheduled releases	Continuous deploy	Continuous deploy
Best For	Versioned software, mobile apps	SaaS, web apps	High-velocity teams
Branch Lifetime	Days to weeks	Hours to days	Hours (< 1 day ideal)
CI/CD Fit	Moderate (complex pipelines)	Excellent	Excellent
Team Size	Any	Small-medium	Any (with feature flags)

Usage Tips

1. Pick a branching strategy page that matches your team and stick with it — consistency matters more than which one you choose.
2. Memorize the recovery commands — git reflog has saved more developers than any other command.
3. Set up the git hooks from the examples — they catch mistakes before they become PR review comments.
4. Copy the .gitconfig aliases — the pack includes 30+ aliases that cut your typing in half.
5. Use the merge vs rebase decision tree until it becomes instinct — it prevents the most common team workflow arguments.

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