Find the commit that introduced a regression with an automated git bisect run, then fix it. Use when something that used to work is now broken and the cause isn't obvious — the user says "this worked last week", "which commit broke X", "find the commit that caused this bug", "it regressed", or asks to bisect. Best when you can express the bug as a pass/fail command.
Keep history as atomic commits by folding a change into the existing commit it belongs to instead of stacking a new one — the heart of an atomic-commit workflow. Use whenever an uncommitted (or about-to-be-made) change is really a fix, tweak, reword, or addition to a commit already on the branch: a typo or forgotten file in the commit just made, a correction belonging in a commit from further back, or several working-tree edits that each belong to different earlier commits. It routes to the right mechanism automatically: `git commit --amend` for the latest commit, an interactive-rebase `edit` stop for authoring into an older commit in its own context, or `git commit --fixup` + autosquash for already-made changes (especially when they map to several target commits). Common phrasings: "fold this into my last commit", "this fix belongs in the commit where I added X", "reword the last commit", "these edits fix a couple of earlier commits, squash them in", "get this into that commit so history looks clean". Not fo
Recover the branch to its state before a git operation using the reflog. Use when the user wants to undo or reverse a merge, rebase, reset, amend, squash, or "bad" history rewrite, says "get my commits back", "I messed up the rebase", "revert to before I ran X", or fears they lost commits. This recovers via reflog, distinct from git revert (which makes a new inverse commit).
Resolve merge conflicts and continue the interrupted rebase, merge, or cherry-pick. Use whenever git reports conflicts or halts mid-operation with "CONFLICT", "Unmerged paths", "fix conflicts and then commit", or the user asks to resolve/handle conflicts or says an operation is "stuck on a conflict".