Git Squash Cheat Sheet

Squashing Git commits — interactive rebase squash, fixup, autosquash, and best practices for clean commit history before merging.

Last Updated: May 1, 2025

Interactive Rebase Squash

git rebase -i HEAD~4

Interactive rebase last 4 commits

pick → squash

In rebase editor: change 'pick' to 'squash' to meld into previous

pick → fixup

Change 'pick' to 'fixup' — squash AND discard the commit message

pick → reword

Change 'pick' to 'reword' to edit the commit message only

pick → drop

Remove the commit entirely from history

git rebase -i --autosquash HEAD~5

Auto-squash fixup!/squash! commits automatically

git rebase -i --root

Rebase ALL commits from the root (rewrite entire history)

git rebase --continue

Continue after resolving conflicts during rebase

Fixup & Autosquash Workflow

git commit --fixup target-commit

Create a fixup commit targeting a specific commit

git commit --squash target-commit

Create a squash commit with message preservation

git rebase -i --autosquash main

Auto-reorder and squash fixup!/squash! commits

git config --global rebase.autosquash true

Enable autosquash by default

git commit --fixup=amend:/regex/

Fixup the commit whose message matches regex

git rebase -i --autosquash --keep-empty

Autosquash but preserve intentional empty commits

Squash Merge Strategies

Item	Description
`Squash Merge`	GitHub/GitLab: squash all PR commits into one on merge
`Merge Commit`	Keep all individual commits, add merge commit (full history)
`Rebase Merge`	Linear history, all commits preserved, no merge commit
`Semi-Linear Merge`	Rebase then merge commit — linear history with merge marker
`Squash + Branch Delete`	Default for most teams: one clean commit per feature
`Interactive Squash`	Manually combine related commits, keep logical separations

Best Practices

Item	Description
`Squash WIPs`	Squash 'WIP', 'fix typo', 'oops' commits before sharing
`Keep Logical Units`	One commit per logical change — don't squash everything
`Clean Before Review`	Interactive rebase to polish history before opening PR
`Commit Messages Matter`	A squashed commit needs a high-quality message
`Don't Squash Shared History`	Never rebase/squash commits already pushed to shared branches
`Autosquash Config`	Set globally: git config --global rebase.autosquash true
`Squash != Amend`	Squash combines commits; amend replaces the last commit
`Co-Author Credit`	Use Co-authored-by: in squashed merge to credit contributors

Pro Tip: Squash WIP commits before merging, but keep logical steps separate. A PR with one mega-commit is as unhelpful as one with 50 'fix typo' commits.