Choose restore, reset, or revert

These commands solve different problems. The safest choice depends on whether the change is in a file, the index, or commit history.

Discard working-tree changes

# Restore one file from HEAD.
git restore <file>

# Restore all tracked working-tree changes.
git restore .

This discards unstaged edits. It does not remove staged changes.

Unstage without discarding edits

git restore --staged <file>

--staged moves the file out of the index while leaving its working-tree edits intact.

Move a private branch backward

# Move HEAD and the current branch, keeping changes staged.
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Move HEAD and discard the commit's changes from the index, keeping files edited.
git reset --mixed HEAD~1

--mixed is the default. Avoid resetting commits that have already been shared.

Create an inverse commit

git revert <commit>

revert creates a new commit that reverses an earlier commit. It is the usual choice for published history because it does not rewrite existing commit IDs.