Hosting Operations

Find a Discarded Commit in Reflog

Someone ran reset during incident work and you need to locate the commit that disappeared from the branch tip.

Command

cd /lab/git-recovery-rollback && git reflog --date=iso --format='%h %gd %gs' -6

What changed

Nothing changes. Git prints recent HEAD movements from the reflog.

Danger

safe

When to use it

Use after an accidental reset, checkout, commit amend, or branch movement.

When not to use it

Do not wait weeks to inspect reflog; entries can expire or be pruned.

Undo or recovery

No undo needed because this command is read-only.

Expected output

Recent reflog entries showing a reset and the discarded incident-note commit.

demo script

Disposable terminal steps

cd /lab/git-recovery-rollback && git reflog --date=iso --format='%h %gd %gs' -6
cd /lab/git-recovery-rollback && git show -s --format='%h %s' HEAD@{1}

Terminal transcript Demo JSON

simulated output

What it looks like

disposable vessel

::fixture-ready::
$ cd /lab/git-recovery-rollback && git reflog --date=iso --format='%h %gd %gs' -6
de583c6 HEAD@{2026-06-26 00:27:37 +0000} reset: moving to HEAD~1
7e5872b HEAD@{2026-06-25 10:45:00 +0000} commit: Capture incident rollback note
de583c6 HEAD@{2026-06-25 10:30:00 +0000} commit: Release 2026-06-25 10:30
c15c7c6 HEAD@{2026-06-25 10:00:00 +0000} commit: Release 2026-06-25 10:00
ddb9d51 HEAD@{2026-06-24 17:00:00 +0000} commit (initial): Release 2026-06-24 17:00
::exit-code::0
$ cd /lab/git-recovery-rollback && git show -s --format='%h %s' HEAD@{1}
7e5872b Capture incident rollback note
::exit-code::0

YouTube Short

Reset is not always lost.

After a reset, check the reflog. The old tip is usually still there long enough to recover.

experiments

A/B tests to run

Metric: watch_time

A: A reset does not erase the commit immediately.

B: Find the old tip in reflog.