We all learn Git the hard way. You start with add, commit, push — and that works until the day you accidentally commit to main or delete a branch you meant to keep.

Here are 10 Git commands I discovered way later than I should have. Each one saved me from a real mess.

1. git switch — The Safe Checkout

I used git checkout for everything: switching branches, restoring files, creating new branches. Until one day I ran:

git checkout some-file.txt