Reset & Revert

You might say

I just committed the wrong thing. How do I undo it?

Two ways to undo committed work: reset moves the branch pointer, revert adds an opposite commitWhen a faulty commit exists only locally, reset moves the branch pointer backward to cleanly discard or unstage it; if that commit has already been pushed to a shared remote, use revert to append an offsetting commit instead. revert preserves collaborative history intact, whereas reset alters where the current branch pointer points.
Know first
CommitPush
ResetRevert
main
Reset back to here
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Reset moves the branch pointer back to a commit, so later commits disappear from this line. For commits already pushed, use git revert instead of rewriting history.

When to use it

  • Undo a local commit by resetting back one
    $ git reset --hard HEAD~1HEAD is now at 3f9c2ab Adjust navigation spacing
  • Keep changes but redo the commit with --soft
    $ git reset --soft HEAD~1Changes stay staged; restage and commit after tidying up
  • Undo a pushed commit with revert
    $ git revert a1b2c3d[main 9e8f7a6] Revert "Add debug code by mistake"
  • Check before --hard discards uncommitted work
    git status shows uncommitted changesreset --hard discards these changes too

When NOT to use it

  • Reset a pushed commit and force push over teammates' history
    Force pushing after resetting a pushed commit splits teammates' copiesDo not rewrite shared history; use revert
  • Run reset --hard blindly and lose uncommitted work
    Two hours of uncommitted work disappear with reset --hardRun git status first to confirm
  • Revert someone else's commit without telling them
    Reverted a teammate's commit without telling themThey keep building on reverted work, creating needless conflicts
  • Skip verification after undoing
    reset ✓→The page errors
Anatomy
HEAD
Back to here
Reset removes it from the branch line; revert keeps it and adds an opposite commit.
Variants
--soft
git reset --soft HEAD~1
Undo the commit but keep the changes to restage them
--hard
git reset --hard HEAD~1
Return to the previous commit and discard the changes
revert
git revert a1b2c3d
Undo a pushed commit without rewriting shared history
Typical use cases
git reset in a terminal
zsh — my-first-page
$ git reset --hard HEAD~1 HEAD is now at 3f9c2ab Adjust navigation spacing The branch pointer moved back; the wrong commit leaves this line
History back at the previous commit
main
After reset, HEAD points at Adjust navigation spacing; the wrong commit is gone from history
git revert in a terminal
zsh — my-first-page
$ git revert a1b2c3d [main 9e8f7a6] Revert "Add debug code by mistake" A new commit cancels the changes in a1b2c3d
A Revert commit in git log
main
Revert keeps history: the red commit stays, the green commit cancels its changes
Further reading
Git - git-reset Documentationgit-scm ↗Git - git-revert Documentationgit-scm ↗