Interactive Rebase Guide: Clean Up Your Git History

# Rebase the last 4 commits interactively
git rebase -i HEAD~4

# Rebase all commits since branching from main
git rebase -i main

# Rebase from a specific commit (exclusive — that commit is not included)
git rebase -i a3b2c1d

# The editor opens with something like:
# pick f7a1b2c WIP: user auth
# pick 3d9e4f5 fix
# pick a1c2d3e fix again
# pick 8b7e6f4 Add user authentication module

# Available actions (use the full word or just the first letter):
# pick   p  — keep the commit as-is
# reword r  — keep the commit, but edit its message
# edit   e  — pause rebase here so you can amend the commit
# squash s  — merge into the previous commit, combining messages
# fixup  f  — merge into the previous commit, discard this message
# drop   d  — remove this commit entirely
# exec   x  — run a shell command after this commit

# Example: squash 3 WIP commits into the last one
# pick f7a1b2c WIP: user auth
# squash 3d9e4f5 fix
# squash a1c2d3e fix again
# reword 8b7e6f4 Add user authentication module

# Before: 4 noisy commits
# pick a1b2c3 Add login form HTML
# squash d4e5f6 Add form styles
# squash 7g8h9i Wire up form submit handler
# squash j0k1l2 Add form validation

# Git opens another editor to write the combined message:
# This is a combination of 4 commits.
# Add login form HTML
# Add form styles
# Wire up form submit handler
# Add form validation
#
# Edit to: "Add login form with validation"
# Save and close → one clean commit

# Change 'reword' on the commits you want to rename
# pick  a1b2c3 fix auth bug
# reword d4e5f6 wip remove later
# pick  7g8h9i add rate limiting

# Git pauses at 'd4e5f6' and opens an editor.
# Change the message to something meaningful:
# "Sanitize email input before passing to auth provider"
# Save → rebase continues

# Remove a commit entirely
# pick  a1b2c3 Add feature flag for dark mode
# drop  d4e5f6 console.log debugging session
# pick  7g8h9i Clean up feature flag logic

# That commit is gone from history after the rebase.
# Warning: if later commits depend on the dropped commit,
# you may get conflicts during the rebase.

# Before reordering:
# pick a1b2c3 Add dark mode toggle
# pick d4e5f6 Fix typo in README   ← should be first
# pick 7g8h9i Refactor theme system

# After reordering (move the README fix to top):
# pick d4e5f6 Fix typo in README
# pick a1b2c3 Add dark mode toggle
# pick 7g8h9i Refactor theme system

# Mark the commit to split as 'edit'
# edit a1b2c3 Add user model and admin panel

# Rebase pauses at that commit. Now:

# Undo the commit but keep the changes
git reset HEAD~1

# Selectively commit the first part
git add src/models/user.ts
git commit -m "Add user model"

# Commit the second part
git add src/admin/panel.tsx
git commit -m "Add admin panel scaffold"

# Resume the rebase
git rebase --continue

# After rebase, push the rewritten history
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/user-auth

# Never use plain --force on shared branches
# --force-with-lease refuses if the remote has new commits you haven't seen