Git Troubleshooting

Git Troubleshooting Skill

This skill provides comprehensive guidance on diagnosing and resolving git issues, recovering from mistakes, fixing corrupted repositories, and handling common error scenarios.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Encountering git error messages
• Recovering lost commits or branches
• Fixing corrupted repositories
• Resolving detached HEAD state
• Handling botched merges or rebases
• Diagnosing repository issues
• Recovering from force push
• Fixing authentication problems

Recovering Lost Commits

Using Reflog

# View reflog (local history of HEAD)
git reflog

# View reflog for specific branch
git reflog show branch-name

# Output example:
# abc123 HEAD@{0}: commit: feat: add authentication
# def456 HEAD@{1}: commit: fix: resolve bug
# ghi789 HEAD@{2}: reset: moving to HEAD~1

# Recover lost commit
git cherry-pick abc123

# Or create branch from lost commit
git branch recovered-branch abc123

# Or reset to lost commit
git reset --hard abc123

Finding Dangling Commits

# Find all unreachable objects
git fsck --lost-found

# Output:
# dangling commit abc123
# dangling blob def456