Undoing Changes

Everyone makes mistakes. Git gives you multiple ways to undo changes depending on what stage the mistake is at — working directory, staging area, or already committed. This episode covers every undo scenario, from "I just saved a bad edit" to "I need to reverse a commit that's already been pushed."

Undo Working Directory Changes

# Discard changes to a specific file (revert to last commit)
git restore index.html

# Discard ALL changes in working directory
git restore .

# Older syntax (still works)
git checkout -- index.html

Warning: These changes are gone forever. There's no undo for discarding uncommitted work.

Undo Staged Changes

# Unstage a file (keep the changes in working directory)
git restore --staged index.html

# Unstage everything
git restore --staged .

# Older syntax
git reset HEAD index.html

Undo the Last Commit

# Undo commit, keep changes STAGED
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo commit, keep changes UNSTAGED (default)
git reset HEAD~1
# or explicitly:
git reset --mixed HEAD~1

# Undo commit AND discard all changes (DANGEROUS)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Remember:

• --soft — Commits are undone, changes stay staged (ready to re-commit)
• --mixed — Commits are undone, changes are unstaged (in working directory)
• --hard — Everything is gone. Use with extreme caution.

Undo Multiple Commits

# Undo the last 3 commits (keep changes staged)
git reset --soft HEAD~3

# Go back to a specific commit
git reset --hard a1b2c3d

git revert — Safe Undo for Pushed Commits

git reset rewrites history — it's dangerous for commits that have been pushed. git revert is the safe alternative: it creates a new commit that undoes the changes:

# Revert a specific commit
git revert a1b2c3d

# Revert the last commit
git revert HEAD

# Revert without auto-committing (stage the reversal for review)
git revert --no-commit a1b2c3d

Key difference:

• git reset — Erases commits from history. Use only on unpushed commits.
• git revert — Adds a new "undo" commit. Safe for pushed/shared commits.

Recovering "Lost" Commits

If you accidentally git reset --hard and lost commits, Git keeps them for 30 days in the reflog:

# View the reflog — shows EVERYTHING you've done
git reflog

# Output:
# a1b2c3d HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD~3
# e4f5g6h HEAD@{1}: commit: Add login feature
# i7j8k9l HEAD@{2}: commit: Update styles

# Recover by resetting back to the lost commit
git reset --hard e4f5g6h

The reflog is your safety net. As long as you committed something, Git remembers it for 30 days — even if you think you deleted it.

Amending the Last Commit

# Fix the last commit message
git commit --amend -m "Corrected commit message"

# Add forgotten files to the last commit
git add forgotten-file.js
git commit --amend --no-edit

What's Next

You now know how to undo virtually anything in Git. In the next episode, we'll learn about .gitignore — telling Git which files to permanently ignore.