Real-World Git Workflows

The two ways to integrate changes. When each is better, and the philosophical 'rewrite history vs preserve history' debate. FIND_VIDEO: search 'git rebase vs merge tutorial' — recommended channel: Atlassian / Fireship. Aim for 11 min or under.

The mechanics of rebase, the trade-offs, and team conventions around the choice.

Rewrite your branch's history: squash, edit, reorder, drop commits before sharing. The history-cleanup superpower. FIND_VIDEO: search 'git interactive rebase tutorial squash' — recommended channel: Fireship / Atlassian. Aim for 10 min or under.

Interactive rebase commands and the typical pre-PR cleanup workflow.

Three utility commands for common situations: temporary save (stash), copy a specific commit (cherry-pick), move pointers (reset). FIND_VIDEO: search 'git stash cherry-pick reset tutorial' — recommended channel: Atlassian / Fireship. Aim for 10 min or under.

Stash for context-switching, cherry-pick for plucking commits, reset for moving branch pointers. Plus the three reset modes.

The conflict markers, the strategies, and the tools that make resolution easier (mergetool, IDE integrations). FIND_VIDEO: search 'git merge conflict resolution tutorial' — recommended channel: Fireship / Atlassian. Aim for 10 min or under.

The anatomy of a conflict, the three sections (HEAD, incoming, merged), and how to resolve cleanly.

The safety net you didn't know you had. Reflog records every HEAD movement; almost everything is recoverable. FIND_VIDEO: search 'git reflog recovery lost commits' — recommended channel: Atlassian / Fireship. Aim for 9 min or under.

How reflog works, when it saves you, and the cases where work IS lost (rare).