Git Advanced Workflows

Master advanced Git techniques to maintain clean history, collaborate effectively, and recover from any situation with confidence.

When to Use This Skill

• Cleaning up commit history before merging
• Applying specific commits across branches
• Finding commits that introduced bugs
• Working on multiple features simultaneously
• Recovering from Git mistakes or lost commits
• Managing complex branch workflows
• Preparing clean PRs for review
• Synchronizing diverged branches

Core Concepts

1. Interactive Rebase

Interactive rebase is the Swiss Army knife of Git history editing.

Common Operations:

• pick: Keep commit as-is
• reword: Change commit message
• edit: Amend commit content
• squash: Combine with previous commit
• fixup: Like squash but discard message
• drop: Remove commit entirely

Basic Usage:

# Rebase last 5 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~5

# Rebase all commits on current branch
git rebase -i $(git merge-base HEAD main)

# Rebase onto specific commit
git rebase -i abc123

2. Cherry-Picking

Apply specific commits from one branch to another without merging entire branches.

# Cherry-pick single commit
git cherry-pick abc123

# Cherry-pick range of commits (exclusive start)
git cherry-pick abc123..def456

# Cherry-pick without committing (stage changes only)
git cherry-pick -n abc123

# Cherry-pick and edit commit message
git cherry-pick -e abc123

3. Git Bisect

Binary search through commit history to find the commit that introduced a bug.

# Start bisect
git bisect start

# Mark current commit as bad
git bisect bad

# Mark known good commit
git bisect good v1.0.0

# Git will checkout middle commit - test it
# Then mark as good or bad
git bisect good  # or: git bisect bad

# Continue until bug found
# When done
git bisect reset

Automated Bisect:

# Use script to test automatically
git bisect start HEAD v1.0.0
git bisect run ./test.sh

# test.sh should exit 0 for good, 1-127 (except 125) for bad

4. Worktrees

Work on multiple branches simultaneously without stashing or switching.

# List existing worktrees
git worktree list

# Add new worktree for feature branch
git worktree add ../project-feature feature/new-feature

# Add worktree and create new branch
git worktree add -b bugfix/urgent ../project-hotfix main

# Remove worktree
git worktree remove ../project-feature

# Prune stale worktrees
git worktree prune

5. Reflog

Your safety net - tracks all ref movements, even deleted commits.

# View reflog
git reflog

# View reflog for specific branch
git reflog show feature/branch

# Restore deleted commit
git reflog
# Find commit hash
git checkout abc123
git branch recovered-branch

# Restore deleted branch
git reflog
git branch deleted-branch abc123

Practical Workflows

Workflow 1: Clean Up Feature Branch Before PR

# Start with feature branch
git checkout feature/user-auth

# Interactive rebase to clean history
git rebase -i main

# Example rebase operations:
# - Squash "fix typo" commits
# - Reword commit messages for clarity
# - Reorder commits logically
# - Drop unnecessary commits

# Force push cleaned branch (safe if no one else is using it)
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/user-auth

Workflow 2: Apply Hotfix to Multiple Releases

# Create fix on main
git checkout main
git commit -m "fix: critical security patch"

# Apply to release branches
git checkout release/2.0
git cherry-pick abc123

git checkout release/1.9
git cherry-pick abc123

# Handle conflicts if they arise
git cherry-pick --continue
# or
git cherry-pick --abort

Workflow 3: Find Bug Introduction

# Start bisect
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD
git bisect good v2.1.0

# Git checks out middle commit - run tests
npm test

# If tests fail
git bisect bad

# If tests pass
git bisect good

# Git will automatically checkout next commit to test
# Repeat until bug found

# Automated version
git bisect start HEAD v2.1.0
git bisect run npm test

Workflow 4: Multi-Branch Development

# Main project directory
cd ~/projects/myapp

# Create worktree for urgent bugfix
git worktree add ../myapp-hotfix hotfix/critical-bug

# Work on hotfix in separate directory
cd ../myapp-hotfix
# Make changes, commit
git commit -m "fix: resolve critical bug"
git push origin hotfix/critical-bug

# Return to main work without interruption
cd ~/projects/myapp
git fetch origin
git cherry-pick hotfix/critical-bug

# Clean up when done
git worktree remove ../myapp-hotfix

Workflow 5: Recover from Mistakes

# Accidentally reset to wrong commit
git reset --hard HEAD~5  # Oh no!

# Use reflog to find lost commits
git reflog
# Output shows:
# abc123 HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD~5
# def456 HEAD@{1}: commit: my important changes

# Recover lost commits
git reset --hard def456

# Or create branch from lost commit
git branch recovery def456

Advanced Techniques

Rebase vs Merge Strategy

When to Rebase:

• Cleaning up local commits before pushing
• Keeping feature branch up-to-date with main
• Creating linear history for easier review

When to Merge:

• Integrating completed features into main
• Preserving exact history of collaboration
• Public branches used by others

# Update feature branch with main changes (rebase)
git checkout feature/my-feature
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Handle conflicts
git status
# Fix conflicts in files
git add .
git rebase --continue

# Or merge instead
git merge origin/main

Autosquash Workflow

Automatically squash fixup commits during rebase.

# Make initial commit
git commit -m "feat: add user authentication"

# Later, fix something in that commit
# Stage changes
git commit --fixup HEAD  # or specify commit hash

# Make more changes
git commit --fixup abc123

# Rebase with autosquash
git rebase -i --autosquash main

# Git automatically marks fixup commits

Split Commit

Break one commit into multiple logical commits.

# Start interactive rebase
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Mark commit to split with 'edit'
# Git will stop at that commit

# Reset commit but keep changes
git reset HEAD^

# Stage and commit in logical chunks
git add file1.py
git commit -m "feat: add validation"

git add file2.py
git commit -m "feat: add error handling"

# Continue rebase
git rebase --continue

Partial Cherry-Pick

Cherry-pick only specific files from a commit.

# Show files in commit
git show --name-only abc123

# Checkout specific files from commit
git checkout abc123 -- path/to/file1.py path/to/file2.py

# Stage and commit
git commit -m "cherry-pick: apply specific changes from abc123"

Best Practices

1. Always Use --force-with-lease: Safer than --force, prevents overwriting others' work
2. Rebase Only Local Commits: Don't rebase commits that have been pushed and shared
3. Descriptive Commit Messages: Future you will thank present you
4. Atomic Commits: Each commit should be a single logical change
5. Test Before Force Push: Ensure history rewrite didn't break anything
6. Keep Reflog Aware: Remember reflog is your safety net for 90 days
7. Branch Before Risky Operations: Create backup branch before complex rebases

# Safe force push
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/branch

# Create backup before risky operation
git branch backup-branch
git rebase -i main
# If something goes wrong
git reset --hard backup-branch

Common Pitfalls

• Rebasing Public Branches: Causes history conflicts for collaborators
• Force Pushing Without Lease: Can overwrite teammate's work
• Losing Work in Rebase: Resolve conflicts carefully, test after rebase
• Forgetting Worktree Cleanup: Orphaned worktrees consume disk space
• Not Backing Up Before Experiment: Always create safety branch
• Bisect on Dirty Working Directory: Commit or stash before bisecting

Recovery Commands

# Abort operations in progress
git rebase --abort
git merge --abort
git cherry-pick --abort
git bisect reset

# Restore file to version from specific commit
git restore --source=abc123 path/to/file

# Undo last commit but keep changes
git reset --soft HEAD^

# Undo last commit and discard changes
git reset --hard HEAD^

# Recover deleted branch (within 90 days)
git reflog
git branch recovered-branch abc123