If you started a merge and then realized you made a terrible life choice, breathe. Git gives you several ways to stop a merge without blowing up the repo or your team morale. This guide covers checking the repo state, aborting uncommitted merges, using reset when abort fails, undoing a committed merge safely, and using reflog to recover lost work.

Check repository state

First things first run a quick health check so you know what you are dealing with. The commands below tell you whether a merge is in progress and what the last commits look like.

git status
git log --oneline -n 10

git status will tell you if a merge is in progress and list files with merge conflicts. git log --oneline shows recent commits so you can decide whether to rewrite history or not.

Abort an ongoing uncommitted merge

If Git says a merge is in progress and you have not committed the merge, use the polite option first.

git merge --abort

This returns the repository to the pre merge state and tries to preserve your working tree like nothing ever happened. Use this when you are sure you want to drop the merge and any unresolved changes in the index.

Use reset when merge abort refuses to run

Sometimes git merge --abort will refuse to run for obscure reasons and you will feel vindicated for distrusting computers. Try these alternatives based on how much you are willing to lose.

• Safer reset that cancels merge but tries to preserve index rules

  git reset --merge

• Hard reset if you want to force the working tree back

  git reset --hard HEAD

  Warning local changes are lost with a hard reset. Back up anything you care about first.

Undo a committed merge safely

If you already created the merge commit pick your poison based on whether the branch is shared.

• Rewrite local history and move HEAD back

  git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD

  Good for local cleanup or branches no one else is using.

• Safe option for shared branches

  git revert -m 1 <merge commit hash>

  This makes a new commit that undoes the merge without rewriting history. Use this when other people have pulled the merge.

Recover from mistakes with reflog

If you typed the wrong command and regret everything git reflog is your time machine. It records where HEAD has been so you can find the commit you lost.

git reflog
git reset --hard <reflog hash>

Find the right entry in reflog then reset to it. This restores a lost snapshot if you acted too fast with a reset or other destructive command.

Quick workflow tips and safety tricks

• Before merging create a backup branch with git branch backup or stash changes with git stash.
• Prefer git revert on shared branches to avoid upsetting teammates with rewritten history.
• Use git log --oneline and git status often so you do not have to guess what Git thinks is happening.

Summary

Use git merge --abort for in progress merges. If that fails try git reset --merge or git reset --hard HEAD with caution. For committed merges use git revert -m 1 on shared branches or git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD for local rewrites. When all else fails consult git reflog and restore the right snapshot. Pick the least destructive option that fits your workflow and maybe stop merging at 2 a m.