/git-workflow

Avoid Force Push on Shared Branches

Never force push to shared branches like main or develop, as it rewrites history and disrupts other developers.

Bad Example

# Force pushing to main
git checkout main
git reset --hard HEAD~3
git push --force origin main
# Everyone's local main is now broken

# Force pushing to shared feature branch
git checkout feature/shared-work
git rebase main
git push --force origin feature/shared-work
# Colleagues' work may be lost

# Amending pushed commits on shared branch
git commit --amend -m "better message"
git push --force origin feature/team-project
# Team members can't pull cleanly

# Force pushing after failed rebase
git rebase main
# Conflicts everywhere, give up
git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD
git push --force
# But you already pushed the partial rebase

Good Example

# Use --force-with-lease for personal branches
git checkout feature/my-branch
git rebase main
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/my-branch
# Fails safely if someone else pushed

# Revert instead of force push on shared branches
git checkout main
git revert abc123
git push origin main
# History preserved, change undone

# Fix mistakes with new commits, not rewrites
git commit -m "fix: correct the previous commit's error"
git push origin shared-branch
# No history rewrite

# If you must coordinate a rebase on shared branch
# 1. Notify all collaborators
# 2. Everyone commits and pushes their work
# 3. Everyone stops pushing
# 4. One person rebases and force pushes
# 5. Everyone resets to remote
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/feature/shared-work

Why

Force pushing to shared branches causes serious problems:

1. Lost Work: Other developers' commits can be overwritten
2. Broken History: Local branches diverge from remote
3. Sync Issues: Developers see conflicts when pulling
4. Confusion: Commit SHAs change, breaking references
5. CI/CD Issues: Builds may reference non-existent commits

The --force-with-lease safety net:

# Regular force push - dangerous
git push --force
# Overwrites remote regardless of state

# Force with lease - safer
git push --force-with-lease
# Fails if remote has commits you haven't fetched
# Protects against overwriting others' work

Scenarios and solutions:

Branch protection prevents force pushes:

# GitHub branch protection
main:
  allow_force_pushes: false
  allow_deletions: false

Even with --force-with-lease, communicate with your team before force pushing to any branch others might be using.