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Hectal
Phase 5Advanced6 of 9 in Git

Rewriting History Safely

Amend, cherry-pick, reflog, and force-push — the tools that touch history directly, and the exact rules that keep them safe instead of catastrophic.

This phase covers Git's most powerful — and most feared — tools. Each one is genuinely safe once you understand exactly what it does and follow one consistent rule: never rewrite history that's already been shared. Reflog, in particular, is the safety net that makes most 'I think I just destroyed my work' moments completely recoverable.

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4 topics ~56 min 7 code blocks & diagrams
Start with the first topic
1
5.1

Amending Commits

git commit --amend replaces your most recent commit entirely — fixing a typo'd message or adding a forgotten file without cluttering history with a separate 'oops' commit.

14 min 1 code practice

2
5.2

Cherry-Pick: Taking One Specific Commit

git cherry-pick copies one specific commit from anywhere in the repository onto your current branch — genuinely useful for pulling a single fix across without merging everything else around it.

14 min 1 diagram 1 code practice

3
5.3

Reflog: Your Undo Button for (Almost) Everything

git reflog is a private, local log of every place HEAD has pointed to recently — including commits that a bad reset or rebase seemingly erased — making most 'I think I just destroyed my work' moments completely recoverable.

14 min 1 diagram 1 code practice

4
5.4

Force-Pushing Safely (--force-with-lease) & When Never To

A normal push is rejected after rewriting history — force-pushing overrides that protection, and --force-with-lease is the version that at least checks nobody else pushed in the meantime before doing it.

14 min 1 diagram 1 code practice