15 Git Tricks That Will Save You Hours Every Week in 2026

Every developer uses Git daily, but most only know the basics. Here are 15 lesser-known Git tricks that senior developers use to save hours every week.

1. Undo Your Last Commit (Keep Changes)

git reset --soft HEAD~1

This undoes the commit but keeps your changes staged. Perfect when you committed too early.

2. See What Changed in a Specific Commit

git show abc1234 --stat

The --stat flag gives a clean summary of files changed, lines added/removed.

3. Find Who Wrote a Specific Line

git blame -L 10,20 file.js

Blame a specific line range instead of the whole file. Add -w to ignore whitespace changes.

4. Stash Only Specific Files

git stash push -m "WIP feature" -- src/feature.js src/utils.js

Selective stashing is a game-changer when you are working on multiple things.

5. Interactive Rebase to Clean History

git rebase -i HEAD~5

Squash, reorder, or edit your last 5 commits before pushing. Clean commit history = happy reviewers.

6. Find When a Bug Was Introduced

git bisect start
git bisect bad
git bisect good v1.0.0

Git bisect does a binary search through your commits to find exactly which commit introduced a bug.

7. Create Aliases for Common Commands

git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all"

Type git co instead of git checkout. Type git lg for a beautiful graph log.

8. Search Code Across All Commits

git log -S "functionName" --all

The -S flag (pickaxe) searches for when a string was added or removed across your entire history.

9. Recover a Deleted Branch

git reflog
git checkout -b recovered-branch abc1234

The reflog keeps 90 days of history. Nothing is truly lost in Git.

10. Cherry-Pick a Commit from Another Branch

git cherry-pick abc1234

Apply a single commit from any branch without merging the whole branch.

11. See File at a Previous Version

git show HEAD~3:src/app.js

View any file as it was at any point in history, without checking out that commit.

12. Auto-Fix Whitespace Issues

git diff --check

Catches trailing whitespace and mixed indentation before your CI does.

13. Create a Patch File

git diff > my-changes.patch
git apply my-changes.patch

Share changes with someone without pushing to a remote repository.

14. Worktrees for Parallel Development

git worktree add ../hotfix-branch hotfix/urgent

Work on two branches simultaneously without stashing. Each worktree is a separate directory.

15. Clean Up Merged Branches

git branch --merged main | grep -v main | xargs git branch -d

One-liner to delete all local branches that have been merged into main.

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