🚀 Essential GitHub Commands Every Developer Should Know (2025 Guide)

Whether you're new to Git or a seasoned developer, knowing the right GitHub commands can supercharge your productivity. This guide covers the most important GitHub terminal commands, what they do, and how to use them in your daily workflow.

🔧 What Is GitHub?

GitHub is a platform for hosting and collaborating on code using Git, a distributed version control system. It allows developers to track changes, collaborate in teams, and manage project versions.

🛠️ Core GitHub Commands (with Descriptions)

Here’s a quick-access table of commonly used GitHub commands and their purposes:

Command	Purpose	Example Usage
git clone	Clone a repository from GitHub to your local machine	git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
git status	Show the working directory status	git status
git add	Add files to staging (prepare for commit)	git add . or git add filename.txt
git commit	Save staged changes with a message	git commit -m "Add new feature"
git push	Upload local commits to GitHub	git push origin main
git pull	Fetch and merge updates from GitHub to local	git pull origin main
git branch	List, create, or delete branches	git branch, git branch new-feature
git checkout	Switch to another branch or commit	git checkout main
git merge	Merge changes from one branch into another	git merge feature-branch
git fetch	Get updates from GitHub without merging	git fetch origin
git log	View commit history	git log --oneline
git remote -v	Show the remote URLs connected to the repo	git remote -v
git reset	Unstage files or reset commits	git reset HEAD filename
git revert	Create a new commit that undoes a previous commit	git revert <commit-hash>
git stash	Save changes temporarily without committing	git stash
git rebase	Reapply commits on top of another base tip	git rebase main

💡 Pro Tip:

When working with GitHub daily, use Git aliases to speed things up. For example:

bash
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.cm "commit -m"

✅ Conclusion

Learning and mastering these GitHub commands will save you hours of development time and make team collaboration much smoother. Keep this guide handy, especially when managing branches, resolving conflicts, or syncing your local code with GitHub.