Undoing Changes

Undoing Changes

"How do I undo…?" is the most common Git question. The right command depends on where the change is and whether it's been pushed.

Decision table

Where is the mistake?	Command	Rewrites history?
Edited a file, not staged	git restore <file>	No
Staged a file by accident	git restore --staged <file>	No
Last commit, not pushed (message/typo/missing file)	git commit --amend	Yes (local only)
Last n commits, not pushed	git reset --soft HEAD~n / --mixed / --hard	Yes (local only)
Commit already pushed	git revert <sha>	No - adds a new "inverse" commit
"I lost a commit!"	git reflog then git switch -c rescue <sha>	No

reset modes compared

Assume HEAD is at commit C and we run git reset <mode> HEAD~1 (back to B):

Mode	Branch pointer	Staging area	Working files
--soft	moves to B	keeps C's changes staged	untouched
--mixed (default)	moves to B	reset - changes unstaged	untouched
--hard	moves to B	reset	reset - changes lost ⚠️

Examples

# Forgot to add a file to the last commit
git add forgotten.md
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Undo a bad commit that is already on GitHub
git revert 3b9f0d1
git push

# Recover after an accidental reset --hard
git reflog
# 1e0d5c3 HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD~1
# 7c1e2a9 HEAD@{1}: commit: docs: add labels page   <- the "lost" commit
git reset --hard 7c1e2a9

Golden rule

Don't rewrite history that others have pulled. On shared branches, use git revert. Use amend/reset/rebase only on commits that exist solely on your machine (or your own feature branch). If you must force-push your own branch, use git push --force-with-lease, which refuses if someone else pushed in the meantime.

git reflog keeps a record of where HEAD has been (by default ~90 days), so it is very hard to truly lose committed work.