Git Reflog: The Time Machine That Will Save Your Career

Have you ever made a catastrophic Git mistake that left you sweating, thinking years of code might be lost forever? Meet git reflog – Git's hidden superpower that's like having an "undo" button for nearly every disaster.

While most developers know about git log, far fewer have discovered reflog – Git's secret history keeper that logs everything you do, even the mistakes you thought were permanent.

Photo by Mak on Unsplash

What Makes Git Reflog Your Personal Time Machine?

Unlike standard Git history, which shows the official story of your repository, reflog records every single HEAD movement. Think of it as Git’s black box recorder — even when you rewrite history, delete branches, or force push, reflog remembers what happened.

It silently works in the background, requiring zero setup, creating a safety net you didn’t know you had.

Real-World Disaster Recovery Scenarios

1. The “Oh No, I Just Reset Hard” Panic

You’re cleaning up your repo and accidentally run git reset --hard HEAD~10, wiping out days of work.

Without reflog: Hours of rewriting lost code