Why you should care about the staging area

The staging area is where Git politely asks what you mean to commit and what was a momentary lapse of judgement. Look before you commit and you avoid that 2am rollback while muttering swear words. Use git status and git diff --staged . to see exactly what is queued up for the next commit. It is the best way to stop surprise commits and preserve your reputation with reviewers and future you.

Preview staged changes

First do the boring but necessary checks. Run these commands in the command line to confirm what is staged and what is not.

• git status to get a quick summary
• git diff --staged to inspect staged diffs
• git diff to inspect unstaged edits

Seeing the diffs will prevent accidental commits of debug prints and other crimes against production.

Unstage a single file

If you added a file by mistake and want to leave the file changes in your working tree for more tinkering use the modern command

git restore --staged filename

It removes the file from the staging area but keeps your edits in place. If you prefer the old school option use

git reset HEAD filename

Both commands do the same practical thing. Choose whichever makes you feel more cultured.

Unstage everything at once

When you staged too much and need a fresh start you can unstage everything in the current directory. Run one of these

• git restore --staged .
• git reset HEAD .

Remember that the dot means current directory so double check you are in the right place before nuking your staging area. This will not discard your working changes, it only clears what is queued for commit.

Discard working changes if you really mean it

If you do want to throw away local edits entirely use

git restore filename

That restores the file from the index or HEAD depending on context. Use this only when you know you are fine losing local edits. If you feel even a tiny sliver of doubt keep reading.

Stash when you want an escape hatch

If you are unsure and want to hide your changes for a while stash them. Stashing is the developer version of sticking things in a closet and hoping they do not explode later. Useful commands

• git stash push to save work
• git stash pop to restore the most recent stash
• git stash list to see your stash items

Stash is a small life insurance policy for developer mistakes. Use it before performing aggressive cleans.

Work smarter with hunks and tests

If you want fine grained control stage hunks instead of whole files. This keeps commits focused and makes reviews and reverts much less painful.

• git add -p to stage hunks interactively
• git diff --staged to confirm staged content

Smaller commits mean fewer mysteries later and fewer awkward explanations to teammates.

Quick recap for the tired

• Inspect before committing with git status and git diff --staged
• Unstage a file with git restore --staged filename or git reset HEAD filename
• Unstage everything with git restore --staged . or git reset HEAD .
• Discard working edits with git restore filename only when you are sure
• Stash changes with git stash if you want a safety net

Follow these steps and the next person who opens your repo will either be grateful or suspicious. Both outcomes beat the alternative shock of discovering a commit full of accidental debug code.