Don't Panic — Advanced Git Workflows

Git workflow is the agreement around Git's commit graph: where work starts, who examines it, which checks count, and how a change becomes shared history. Git supplies commits, branches, and remotes. It does not arrive with a small committee in the box to settle every integration argument, which is considerate of it and occasionally inconvenient.

The important picture is small. A commit is a saved snapshot with parent links. A branch is a movable name pointing at one commit. From there, most advanced operations either join histories, move a name, or manufacture replacement commits. The files can look identical after a rewrite; the commit identity is not. That distinction is where many cheerful-looking disasters begin.

Keep one boundary in view: private work is clay, shared work is infrastructure. On a private topic branch, interactive rebase can reorder, combine, edit, or split commits until the sequence tells a useful story. Once other people, automated checks, or maintenance branches depend on those commits, rewriting them hands repair work to everyone downstream. The graph is not being dramatic. It is keeping receipts.

Integration is a choice about what future readers need. A merge preserves the moment two lines of work came together. A rebase replaces a series on a newer base. A squash retains one combined result but leaves the topic's internal checkpoints behind. Cherry-pick has a narrower job: carry one selected fix to another branch as a new commit, such as a maintenance backport. It is a scalpel, not an assembly line.

The awkward parts have names because they recur. Rerere can remember a conflict resolution, but it cannot decide whether the remembered result still makes sense. Worktree gives one repository more than one checkout, which is handy when a hotfix interrupts a feature. Bisect narrows a good-to-bad range when a regression has hidden among the commits like a cat under a duvet.

Start with the slides for the graph and integration choices. Keep the cheatsheet open when deciding whether to merge, rebase, squash, or cherry-pick. Use the practice reference to rehearse the commands and recovery paths in a disposable repository. The exercise then turns those separate moves into one observable backport workflow. The aim is not a pretty graph. It is a team that can move changes, preserve evidence, and recover when the graph objects.

Don't Panic — Advanced Git Workflows

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