Stage

Git · Reference cheat sheet

📖 Overview

Staging selects which changes enter the next commit via the index (staging area). Use pathspecs and patch mode to craft focused commits instead of dumping the whole working tree.

🧩 Core concepts

• Index / staging area — snapshot between working tree and HEAD.
• git add — stage new/modified files; git add -u stages tracked updates/deletes.
• git restore --staged — unstage while keeping working-tree edits.
• Patch staging — git add -p stages hunks interactively.
• Intent to add — git add -N tracks a new file as empty for diffing.
• Status — git status / git diff --cached inspect staged vs unstaged.

💡 Examples

# Stage specific paths
git add README.md src/app.ts
git add src/

# Stage all tracked modifications + deletes (not untracked)
git add -u

# Stage everything under the repo (respects .gitignore)
git add -A

# Interactive hunks
git add -p src/app.ts

# Unstage
git restore --staged src/app.ts
git restore --staged .

# Review
git status
git diff            # unstaged
git diff --cached   # staged vs HEAD

⚠️ Pitfalls

• git add . from a subdirectory only stages under that path — use repo-root awareness.
• Staging secrets (.env) is easy to miss — keep .gitignore current.
• git add -A can stage deletions you did not intend — review git status first.
• Partial staging can leave a file both staged and unstaged with different hunks.

🔗 Related

• Commit
• Gitignore
• Branch
• Merge
• Rebase