
About
Master advanced Git techniques to maintain clean history, collaborate effectively, and recover from any situation with confidence.
name: git-advanced-workflows description: "Master advanced Git techniques to maintain clean history, collaborate effectively, and recover from any situation with confidence." risk: critical source: community date_added: "2026-02-27"
Git Advanced Workflows
Master advanced Git techniques to maintain clean history, collaborate effectively, and recover from any situation with confidence.
Do not use this skill when
- The task is unrelated to git advanced workflows
- You need a different domain or tool outside this scope
Instructions
- Clarify goals, constraints, and required inputs.
- Apply relevant best practices and validate outcomes.
- Provide actionable steps and verification.
- If detailed examples are required, open
resources/implementation-playbook.md.
Use this skill when
- 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-isreword: Change commit messageedit: Amend commit contentsquash: Combine with previous commitfixup: Like squash but discard messagedrop: 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 comm
Compatible Tools
Claude CodeCursor
Tags
Productivity
