Move changes from working tree to a commit

A reliable commit workflow makes the intended snapshot visible before it enters history.

Inspect the working tree

# Show branch and file status in a compact form.
git status --short --branch

# Show unstaged edits.
git diff

Status short codes use two columns: the first describes the index, and the second describes the working tree. For example, M is staged and M is modified but unstaged.

Stage deliberately

# Stage one file.
git add <file>

# Stage several paths.
git add <file-1> <file-2>

# Interactively choose parts of files.
git add --patch

Use git add . when you have reviewed all changes in the current directory and want to stage them together.

Review the staged snapshot

git diff --staged
git status --short

--staged is an alias for --cached. Both show what the next commit will contain.

Commit and verify

git commit -m "Describe one focused change"
git show --stat --oneline HEAD