Git Cheatsheet

A practical Git cheatsheet: the everyday commands plus the rescue moves (reset, reflog, stash, rebase, bisect) — each copy-ready with editable placeholders. Destructive commands are clearly flagged.

Explain a command

Inspect

Status (short)
git status -sb
Pretty history graph
git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all
History of one file
git log --oneline --
path = file to trace
Show what is staged
git diff --staged
Who changed each line
git blame
Show a commit
git show

Stage & commit

Stage everything
git add -A
Stage interactively (hunk by hunk)
git add -p
Commit with a message
git commit -m ""
message = commit message
Amend the last commitdestructive
git commit --amend
Rewrites the last commit — avoid after pushing to a shared branch.
Add staged changes to last commit (keep message)destructive
git commit --amend --no-edit

Branches

List branches
git branch -a
Create and switch to a branch
git switch -c
Switch to an existing branch
git switch
Delete a branch (safe)
git branch -d
Force-delete a branchdestructive
git branch -D
Rename the current branch
git branch -m

Sync with remote

Fetch all remotes (prune stale)
git fetch --all --prune
Pull with rebase (linear history)
git pull --rebase
Push and set upstream
git push -u origin
Force-push safely (after rebase)destructive
git push --force-with-lease
Refuses to overwrite work you have not seen — prefer over --force.

Stash

Stash changes (incl. untracked)
git stash -u
Re-apply the latest stash
git stash pop
List stashes
git stash list

Undo & rescue

Discard changes to a filedestructive
git restore
Unstage a file (keep changes)
git restore --staged
Undo last commit, keep changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~
n = commits to undo
Discard all local changes to a refdestructive
git reset --hard
Throws away commits and working-tree changes — unrecoverable via normal means.
Revert a commit (safe, makes a new commit)
git revert
Find a "lost" commit
git reflog
Every HEAD move is here — recover work after a bad reset/rebase.
Delete untracked files & dirsdestructive
git clean -fd
Permanently removes untracked files. Dry-run first with -n.

Rebase & bisect

Interactive rebase (squash/reorder)destructive
git rebase -i HEAD~
Rewrites history — only on branches nobody else has pulled.
n = commits back
Rebase current branch onto anotherdestructive
git rebase
Apply a specific commit here
git cherry-pick
Binary-search for a bad commit
git bisect start
bad = known-bad ref · good = known-good ref

35 commands. Copy-ready with editable placeholders — everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent to a server.