I committed node_modules (or a build folder)

Severity Annoying

What just happened

Thousands of generated files are now tracked. They make every diff, clone and checkout slow, and create conflicts on each install.

Potential risks

They stay in the history even after removal (repository size).

Before you run anything

Not pushed yet? Amend the commit instead of adding a new one.

Recovery steps

1
Ignore it
Same for dist/, build/, .next/…
Safe
```
$ echo "node_modules/" >> .gitignore
```

Untrack it, keep it on disk

--cached removes it from Git only.

Safe

$ git rm -r --cached node_modules
$ git commit -m "chore: stop tracking node_modules"

3
Check the weight left in the history
If it's huge, the large file detector shows how to clean it.
Safe
```
$ git count-objects -vH
```

These procedures are provided for information only. Read each command and adapt it to your situation before running it. Disclaimer

Other disasters

🪓 I deleted my branch 🚨 I pushed directly to main 💥 I ran git reset --hard 🧨 I overwrote a colleague's commits 🔑 I pushed my .env file to GitHub 🔀 I made a bad merge 👻 I lost uncommitted changes 🎯 I committed on the wrong branch 🎈 I'm in “detached HEAD” state ⚔️ I'm stuck in a merge conflict 🚫 My push is rejected (non-fast-forward)🌀 My rebase went wrong 🐘 GitHub rejects a file over 100 MB 🥸 I committed with the wrong name or email 🗑️ I deleted a file and committed it ⏪ I want to undo my last commit ✏️ I amended a commit that was already pushed 🧹 Too many messy commits to clean up 📮 I pushed to the wrong branch 🧭 I rebased onto the wrong branch 🔁 I need back the changes I reverted 📦 git stash pop gave me a conflict 🙈 I committed a file that should be ignored 🔠 Git doesn't see my file rename (upper/lower case)🧨 I ran git clean -fd by mistake 🩻 My repository is corrupted 🙃 I forgot to pull before pushing 👯 Duplicated lines of code after a merge ➖ I added a file I didn't want to (git add)✏️ I made a typo in a commit message ✂️ My commit does too many things 🧺 I lost a stash (drop, clear or pop gone wrong)🫥 I pulled and my code disappeared 🍒 I cherry-picked the wrong commit ☁️ I deleted a branch on GitHub / GitLab 👥 I pushed with the wrong GitHub account 🚚 The repository was renamed or moved 🏷️ I tagged the wrong commit 🌊 Git says every file is modified, but I changed nothing 📂 I ran git init in the wrong folder 🧨 My pull request has conflicts ⏳ My pull request is behind main 📝 I have to apply review changes to my PR 🧳 My PR shows commits that aren't mine 🎯 I opened my PR against the wrong branch 🚨 A merged PR broke main 🚪 I closed my PR (or deleted its branch) by mistake 🔴 The checks of my PR are failing 🐘 My PR is too big to review 🍴 My fork is behind the original repository