Git reset mechanics

Skill narenaryan/agent-skills/skills/git/git-reset-mechanics

Byte-sized agent skills for giving advanced knowledge to AI agents

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npx -y skills add narenaryan/agent-skills --skill git-reset-mechanics

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Use when undoing commits, unstaging files, or choosing between reset/checkout/restore — clarifies which tree each variant touches and when --hard is unsafe

SKILL.md

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Git Reset Mechanics

Three trees: HEAD (last commit), Index (staged), Working (disk). reset walks them in order and stops by flag.

Flag	HEAD ref	Index	Workdir	WD-safe
`--soft`	moves	—	—	yes
`--mixed` (default)	moves	resets	—	yes
`--hard`	moves	resets	resets	NO

Reset vs Checkout (no path)

git reset --hard <ref> moves the branch HEAD points to; overwrites workdir without checking.
git checkout <ref> moves HEAD (detaches if a commit); refuses if unsaved changes conflict.

With a Path

git reset <commit> -- <path> copies commit→index, skips HEAD move (can't partially move a pointer). --hard with a path is rejected.

git checkout <commit> -- <path> copies commit→index and workdir — destructive. Prefer modern restore:

git restore --staged <path> — unstage
git restore <path> — discard workdir change
git restore --source=<ref> -SW <path> — both

Patterns

git reset --soft HEAD~            # undo commit, keep staging
git reset HEAD~                   # undo commit + unstage
git reset --hard HEAD~            # undo + discard (destructive)
git reset --soft HEAD~3 && git commit   # squash last 3
git reset --patch                 # unstage hunks

Pitfalls

--hard is the only destructive common flag — no prompt. Recovery: git reflog → git reset --hard HEAD@{1}.
Reset on a pushed branch rewrites history others have. Use revert instead.