Undoing Changes

Made a mistake? No problem! Git makes it easy to undo changes at any stage.

The Undo Commands

Git has different commands for undoing changes depending on where those changes are:

Discarding Working Directory Changes

If you've edited a file but want to go back to the last committed version:

git restore index.html

Unstaging Files

Accidentally staged a file you didn't mean to? Remove it from staging (but keep your changes):

git restore --staged index.html

This moves the file back from the staging area to the working directory.

The Safety Net

Think of Git's undo features like this:

Working Directory     Staging Area        Repository
      │                    │                  │
      │◄── restore ────────┤                  │
      │                    │◄── restore ──────┤
      │                    │    --staged      │
      │◄───────────────────┼── reset --hard ──┤

When to Use Each

• git restore - "I messed up this file, bring it back"
• git restore --staged - "I didn't mean to stage this"
• git reset --soft - "I want to redo my last commit"
• git reset --hard - "Delete everything and go back" (careful!)

Try It Out!

Use the interactive simulator to practice undoing changes safely.

Don't worry - in this sandbox, nothing is permanent!