cheatsheetmedium risk

Git branching cheat sheet

A concise branch workflow for creating, switching, publishing, comparing, merging, renaming, and safely deleting Git branches.

Updated Sep 4, 2026 Command scenarios locally verified

Inspect branches

git branch
git branch -r
git branch -vv
git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all -20

Create and switch

git switch -c feature/example
git switch main
git switch --track origin/example

Commit or stash conflicting working-tree changes before switching.

Publish and track

git push -u origin HEAD
git status --short --branch

Confirm git remote -v before the first push.

Compare and integrate

git diff main...feature/example
git log --oneline main..feature/example
git switch main
git merge --no-ff feature/example

The repository may prefer a fast-forward, merge commit, squash, or rebase workflow. Follow its policy.

Rename and delete

git branch -m new-name
git branch --merged main
git branch -d feature/example

Lowercase -d refuses to delete an unmerged branch. Uppercase -D overrides that safety check and can make unique commits harder to find, so inspect first. Generate consistent names with the branch name generator.