Git Commands Cheatsheet: The 30 Commands Every Developer Uses Daily

Most developers use about 10 Git commands 90% of the time. But when things go wrong — merge conflicts, accidental commits, detached HEAD states — you need to know more. Here are the 30 commands every developer should have memorized.

Setup and Configuration

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git init          # Initialize new repo
git clone URL     # Clone remote repo

Daily Workflow

git status              # See what changed
git add .               # Stage all changes
git add file.js         # Stage specific file
git commit -m "message" # Commit staged changes
git push origin main    # Push to remote
git pull                # Fetch + merge remote changes

Branching

git branch              # List branches
git branch feature-x    # Create branch
git checkout feature-x  # Switch to branch
git checkout -b feature-x  # Create + switch
git merge feature-x     # Merge into current branch
git branch -d feature-x # Delete merged branch

Undoing Things

git restore file.js          # Discard unstaged changes
git restore --staged file.js # Unstage a file
git revert HEAD              # Undo last commit (safe)
git reset --soft HEAD~1      # Undo commit, keep changes staged
git reset --hard HEAD~1      # Undo commit, discard changes (destructive)

Inspection

git log --oneline       # Compact commit history
git diff                # Unstaged changes
git diff --staged       # Staged changes
git blame file.js       # See who wrote each line
git stash               # Temporarily store changes
git stash pop           # Restore stashed changes