How to Fix: failed to push some refs

failed to push some refs is a summary, not the root cause. Read the lines immediately above it. A common reason is a non-fast-forward rejection: the remote branch contains commits your local branch does not have.

Inspect the divergence

Preserve local changes first by committing them or using a named stash. Then fetch without merging:

git status --short --branch
git fetch origin
git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all -20

Fetching is a useful diagnostic because it updates remote-tracking refs without altering the current branch.

Integrate the remote work

Choose the workflow your repository expects. Merge keeps both lines of history:

git merge origin/main
git push origin main

Rebase replays your unpublished local commits on top of the remote branch:

git rebase origin/main
git push origin main

Resolve conflicts carefully, run tests, and inspect the resulting history before pushing.

Force is not the default fix

High risk: git push --force can discard commits already published by someone else.

If a team-approved history rewrite is truly required, make a backup branch and prefer the guarded form:

git branch backup/before-force-push
git fetch origin
git push --force-with-lease origin main

--force-with-lease refuses to overwrite a remote value you have not observed, but it is still a history rewrite. Protected branches may reject it.

Other causes include server permissions, branch protection, pre-receive hooks, or pushing a branch that has no commits. Match the exact preceding error before choosing a fix. Compare Git fetch vs. pull for a safer sync workflow.