Undo commits with git reset (soft, mixed, and hard)
domain: git-scm.com/git · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Decide how much history to undo and which mode matches your need.
Soft reset — move HEAD but keep working tree and index: git reset --soft HEAD~1 or git reset --soft <commit>. Combine with git commit to redo the commit with different content.
Mixed reset (default) — move HEAD and reset the index but leave the working tree: git reset HEAD~1. Unstages changes that were staged.
Hard reset — move HEAD, reset the index, and overwrite the working tree to match: git reset --hard HEAD~3 (discards the last 3 commits' changes).
Unstage a file without touching working tree: git reset <pathspec> (equivalent to git restore --staged <pathspec>).
To undo a merge or pull, git pull/merge leaves the original tip in ORIG_HEAD; run git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD to undo.
Known gotchas
git reset --hard overwrites working-tree files including untracked files that are not in the target commit — data loss is permanent for those paths.
Do NOT git reset --hard commits you have already pushed/shared; it destroys shared history and requires a force-push with coordination.
The default mode is --mixed, which only resets the index, not the working tree.
ORIG_HEAD is set before each reset but can be overwritten by later commands; use the reflog (git reflog) to recover the previous tip.
git reset --merge keeps local unstaged changes while resetting index entries, useful after a conflicted merge/pull.
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