When Rebase Helps
Rebase keeps a feature branch readable against current main. Merge commits are fine for integration branches where many people land work and history rewrite would create thrash.
Conflict Discipline
Resolve each conflict once with the full context of that commit. Do not squish unrelated fixes into the wrong step. If you lose the plot, abort and restart with a cleaner base rather than stacking guesses.
Push Rules
Never use bare --force on a team remote. --force-with-lease refuses to overwrite commits you have not fetched, which catches the common "someone pushed while I rebased" failure mode.
Frequently Asked Questions
When Should You Rebase Instead of Merge?
Rebase local or single-owner feature branches to keep history linear. Prefer merge for long-lived shared branches where rewrite coordination is costly.
Is Force Push Ever Safe?
Only with --force-with-lease on a branch you own, after confirming teammates are not based on the old tip.
What If a Rebase Goes Wrong Mid-Way?
Use git rebase --abort to return to the pre-rebase state, or continue carefully if conflicts are already resolved correctly.
From Anxiety to Habit
Practice on a disposable branch first. Once the five steps are muscle memory, rebase becomes a routine cleanup instead of a scary rewrite. Keep lease-protected pushes as a hard rule, and your team will stop treating history edits like production incidents.