git-essentials

Git Essentials

Overview

git-essentials is the NeuroClaw base skill for all version control operations. It provides the essential Git commands for initializing repositories, staging, committing, branching, merging, working with remotes, viewing history, undoing changes, stashing, rebasing, tagging, and common daily workflows.

This skill serves as the foundation for any project that requires reproducible code management, experiment tracking, or collaboration inside NeuroClaw.

Research use only — always combine with git-workflows for advanced operations.

Initial Setup

# Configure user
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

# Initialize repository
git init

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git custom-name

Basic Workflow

Staging and committing

# Check status
git status

# Add files to staging
git add file.txt
git add .
git add -A   # All changes including deletions

# Commit changes
git commit -m "Commit message"

# Add and commit in one step
git commit -am "Message"

# Amend last commit
git commit --amend -m "New message"
git commit --amend --no-edit   # Keep message

Viewing changes

# Show unstaged changes
git diff

# Show staged changes
git diff --staged

# Show changes in specific file
git diff file.txt

# Show changes between commits
git diff commit1 commit2

Branching & Merging

Branch management

# List branches
git branch
git branch -a   # Include remote branches

# Create branch
git branch feature-name

# Switch branch
git checkout feature-name
git switch feature-name   # Modern alternative

# Create and switch
git checkout -b feature-name
git switch -c feature-name

# Delete branch
git branch -d branch-name
git branch -D branch-name   # Force delete

# Rename branch
git branch -m old-name new-name

Merging

# Merge branch into current
git merge feature-name

# Merge with no fast-forward
git merge --no-ff feature-name

# Abort merge
git merge --abort

# Show merge conflicts
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U