Git Commands Cheat Sheet: Most Useful Commands, Tips & Tricks

Create shortcuts for common commands:
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.unstage 'reset HEAD --'
git config --global alias.last 'log -1 HEAD'
git config --global alias.visual '!gitk'

Create a beautiful, compact log view:
git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit --all"

Then use: git lg

Stage and commit all changes in one command:
git add -A && git commit -m "message"

Or create an alias:
git config --global alias.ac '!git add -A && git commit'

If you accidentally deleted a branch or reset, use reflog to find it:
git reflog
git checkout <commit-hash>

Reflog keeps history of all HEAD movements for 90 days.

Add changes to the last commit:
git add <file>
git commit --amend --no-edit

Or change the commit message:
git commit --amend -m "New message"

By default, stash only saves tracked files. Include untracked:
git stash -u

Or include ignored files too:
git stash -a

See what changed in the most recent commit:
git show HEAD

Or just the files:
git show --name-only HEAD

Or with stats:
git show --stat HEAD

Use git bisect to find the problematic commit:
git bisect start
git bisect bad          # Current commit is bad
git bisect good <hash>   # This commit was good
# Git checks out middle commit
# Test and mark as good or bad
git bisect good/bad
# Repeat until found
git bisect reset

Delete all branches that have been merged:
git branch --merged | grep -v "\*\|main\|master" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

Or for remote branches:
git branch -r --merged | grep -v "main\|master" | sed 's/origin\///' | xargs -n 1 git push origin --delete

Squash multiple commits into one:
git rebase -i HEAD~3

In the editor, change 'pick' to 'squash' for commits you want to combine.

Or reword commit messages:
Change 'pick' to 'reword' for commits to edit.

Compare two branches:
git diff branch1..branch2

Or see commits in one but not the other:
git log branch1..branch2

Or see files that differ:
git diff --name-only branch1..branch2

Stage only parts of a file:
git add -p <file>

Git will show each change and ask:
y - stage this hunk
n - don't stage this hunk
s - split into smaller hunks
e - manually edit the hunk

Sometimes you need an empty commit (e.g., to trigger CI):
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger CI build"

Useful for CI/CD pipelines that trigger on commits.

Find files taking up space in your repository:
git rev-list --objects --all | git cat-file --batch-check='%(objecttype) %(objectname) %(objectsize) %(rest)' | awk '/^blob/ {print substr($0,6)}' | sort --numeric-sort --key=2 | tail -10

This shows the 10 largest files in your Git history.

Create a local branch tracking a remote branch:
git checkout -b local-branch origin/remote-branch

Or if branch names match:
git checkout remote-branch

Git automatically sets up tracking.