remote

Git · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

Remotes are named URLs for other repositories (origin, upstream). Manage fetch/push URLs, prune stale refs, and track branches. Most day-to-day sync uses fetch / pull / push against remotes.

🔧 Core concepts

• Add / rename / remove — remote add, rename, remove.
• URL — remote set-url, separate pushurl if needed.
• Verbose — remote -v lists fetch/push URLs.
• Prune — delete local remote-tracking branches removed upstream.
• Upstream — fork workflow: origin = your fork, upstream = canonical.

💡 Examples

git remote -v
git remote add origin git@github.com:you/app.git
git remote add upstream git@github.com:org/app.git

git remote rename origin old-origin
git remote remove old-origin

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:you/app.git
git remote set-url --push origin https://github.com/you/app.git

git fetch upstream
git remote prune origin
git fetch --prune

# Show details
git remote show origin

# Tracking
git branch -vv
git push -u origin HEAD

⚠️ Pitfalls

• Multiple remotes with similar names cause pushes to the wrong place — check -v.
• Changing URL doesn’t rewrite existing remote-tracking history.
• Credential helpers differ for HTTPS vs SSH — fix auth at the remote URL layer.
• prune deletes remote-tracking refs, not local branches — still delete locals yourself.
• Mirror / bare remotes have different push semantics.

🔗 Related

• clone.md
• fetch.md
• push.md
• pull.md
• branch.md
• gh_cli.md