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Dev · Explainer

Git, explained

Four branches, eight commands. The whole of git you need to start, on one page.

PDF · 3 pages · Letterupdated October 9, 2026by Ben Pollock
Page one of Git, explained

What's in it

Page one: the four branches a normal project has and what each is for. Page two: the nine-step loop you actually run every day, and how to write a commit message worth reading. Page three: how to undo things depending on how far the mistake travelled, what a merge conflict really is, and how to open a pull request someone will review.

No rebasing, no cherry-picking, no reflog. Those come later.

Who it's for

Anyone editing files on the live site. Anyone whose backup strategy is a folder called project-final-v2-REAL. Anyone who has heard of a pull request but has never opened one.

Test yourself

There's a companion quiz skill for Claude Code. Install it, then run /quiz-git and it'll ask you eight questions one at a time and score you at the end — quiz-git.

Print it

Three Letter pages. Keep it next to the keyboard until branch, commit, push, PR is muscle memory.

gitbranchinggithubworkflowbeginners