Git Operations Skill

This skill provides comprehensive Git repository management and analysis capabilities.

Capabilities

Repository Information

• Check repository status
• View current branch
• List all branches (local and remote)
• Show remote repository URLs
• Get repository root path

Branch Management

• Create new branches
• Switch between branches
• Delete branches
• Rename branches
• Track remote branches
• List merged/unmerged branches

Commit History Analysis

• View commit logs
• Search commits by message, author, or date
• Show commit diffs
• Find commits that changed specific files
• Analyze commit frequency and patterns
• Generate changelog from commits

File Operations

• Stage files
• Unstage files
• Discard changes
• Show file history
• Blame/annotate files
• Track file renames

Usage Examples

Check Repository Status

# Full status
git status

# Short status
git status -s

# Show untracked files
git status -u

Branch Operations

# List all branches
git branch -a

# Create new branch
git branch feature/new-feature

# Switch to branch
git checkout feature/new-feature

# Create and switch in one command
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# Delete local branch
git branch -d feature/old-feature

# Force delete unmerged branch
git branch -D feature/old-feature

# Delete remote branch
git push origin --delete feature/old-feature

# Rename current branch
git branch -m new-branch-name

# Show branches merged to current
git branch --merged

# Show branches not merged
git branch --no-merged

Commit History

# View recent commits
git log -10

# One-line format
git log --oneline -10

# With file changes
git log --stat -10

# Search by message
git log --grep="fix bug"

# Search by author
git log --author="John Doe"

# Search by date range
git log --since="2024-01-01" --until="2024-12-31"

# Show commits affecting a file
git log -- path/to/file.ts

# Graph view
git log --graph --oneline --all

# Show specific commit
git show abc123f

File History and Blame

# Show who changed each line
git blame path/to/file.ts

# Show file history
git log -p -- path/to/file.ts

# Find when a file was deleted
git log --all --full-history -- path/to/deleted/file.ts

# Track file renames
git log --follow -- path/to/file.ts

Diff Operations

# Show unstaged changes
git diff

# Show staged changes
git diff --staged

# Compare branches
git diff main..feature/branch

# Compare with specific commit
git diff abc123f

# Show diff for specific file
git diff -- path/to/file.ts

# Word-level diff
git diff --word-diff

Stash Operations

# Stash changes
git stash

# Stash with message
git stash save "WIP: feature implementation"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply latest stash
git stash apply

# Apply and remove stash
git stash pop

# Apply specific stash
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Drop stash
git stash drop stash@{0}

# Show stash contents
git stash show -p stash@{0}

Remote Operations

# Show remotes
git remote -v

# Add remote
git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Fetch from remote
git fetch origin

# Pull changes
git pull origin main

# Push changes
git push origin feature/branch

# Push and set upstream
git push -u origin feature/branch

# Force push (use with caution)
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/branch

Common Workflows

Feature Branch Workflow

# 1. Create feature branch from main
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# 2. Make changes and commit
git add .
git commit -m "feat: implement new feature"

# 3. Push to remote
git push -u origin feature/new-feature

# 4. After PR merge, cleanup
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git branch -d feature/new-feature

Fix Conflicts

# 1. Attempt merge/rebase
git merge feature/branch
# or
git rebase main

# 2. If conflicts occur, check status
git status

# 3. Resolve conflicts in files
# Edit conflicted files manually

# 4. Stage resolved files
git add path/to/resolved/file.ts

# 5. Continue merge/rebase
git merge --continue
# or
git rebase --continue

# Or abort if needed
git merge --abort
# or
git rebase --abort

Undo Changes

# Discard unstaged changes in file
git checkout -- path/to/file.ts

# Discard all unstaged changes
git checkout -- .

# Unstage file
git reset HEAD path/to/file.ts

# Unstage all
git reset HEAD

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Revert commit (creates new commit)
git revert abc123f

Cherry-pick Commits

# Apply specific commit from another branch
git cherry-pick abc123f

# Cherry-pick multiple commits
git cherry-pick abc123f def456g

# Cherry-pick without committing
git cherry-pick --no-commit abc123f

Analysis Helpers

Commit Statistics

# Count commits by author
git shortlog -sn

# Commits per day
git log --date=short --pretty=format:"%ad" | sort | uniq -c

# Files changed most often
git log --pretty=format: --name-only | sort | uniq -c | sort -rg | head -20

# Lines added/removed
git log --shortstat --author="John Doe" | grep "files changed" | awk '{files+=$1; inserted+=$4; deleted+=$6} END {print "Files changed:", files, "Lines added:", inserted, "Lines deleted:", deleted}'

Find Bugs

# Find commit that introduced a bug (binary search)
git bisect start
git bisect bad          # Current version is bad
git bisect good v1.0    # v1.0 was good
# Test and mark each version as good/bad
git bisect good/bad
# ... repeat until found
git bisect reset

Repository Cleanup

# Remove untracked files (dry run)
git clean -n

# Remove untracked files
git clean -f

# Remove untracked files and directories
git clean -fd

# Prune remote tracking branches
git remote prune origin

# Garbage collection
git gc --aggressive --prune=now

Best Practices

Commit Messages

Follow Conventional Commits format:

feat: add user authentication
fix: resolve login timeout issue
docs: update API documentation
refactor: simplify error handling
test: add unit tests for auth module
chore: update dependencies

Branch Naming

Use descriptive, hierarchical names:

feature/user-authentication
bugfix/login-timeout
hotfix/security-patch
refactor/error-handling
docs/api-documentation

Safety Tips

• Always pull before push to avoid conflicts
• Never force push to shared branches (main, develop)
• Review changes before committing with git diff
• Use meaningful commit messages
• Keep commits atomic - one logical change per commit
• Test before committing - ensure code works
• Don't commit secrets - use .gitignore

Output Format

When providing Git operation results, use this format:

# Git Operation Report

## Current Repository State
- **Branch:** feature/new-feature
- **Status:** 2 files changed, 1 file staged
- **Remote:** origin/feature/new-feature (up to date)

## Recent Commits
- `abc123f` - feat: implement user authentication (2 hours ago)
- `def456g` - fix: resolve login timeout (1 day ago)
- `ghi789j` - docs: update README (2 days ago)

## Branch Information
- **Local Branches:** main, feature/new-feature, bugfix/login
- **Remote Branches:** origin/main, origin/feature/new-feature
- **Merged Branches:** bugfix/old-issue

## Recommended Actions
- [Action 1]
- [Action 2]

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Detached HEAD state:

git checkout main  # Return to main branch

Merge conflicts:

git status  # See conflicted files
# Resolve conflicts manually
git add .
git commit

Wrong commit message:

git commit --amend -m "New commit message"

Accidentally committed to wrong branch:

git reset HEAD~1  # Undo commit, keep changes
git stash        # Save changes
git checkout correct-branch
git stash pop    # Apply changes
git add .
git commit -m "Message"

Lost commits:

git reflog  # Find lost commit
git checkout abc123f  # Restore commit