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

• Always Use --force-with-lease: Safer than --force, prevents overwriting others' work

• Rebase Only Local Commits: Don't rebase commits that have been pushed and shared

• Descriptive Commit Messages: Future you will thank present you

• Atomic Commits: Each commit should be a single logical change

• Test Before Force Push: Ensure history rewrite didn't break anything

• Keep Reflog Aware: Remember reflog is your safety net for 90 days

• 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