Developer Command Reference

Create a new Git repository in the current directory.

Copy a remote repository to your machine.

Example: git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

Set the name attached to your commits, globally for this machine.

Set the email attached to your commits, globally for this machine.

Show which files are staged, modified, or untracked.

Stage a file's changes for the next commit.

Example: git add . (stages everything in the current directory)

Record staged changes as a new commit.

Show commit history, one line per commit.

Show unstaged changes compared to the last commit.

Show staged changes compared to the last commit.

List local branches. Add a name to create one: git branch <name>.

Create a new branch and switch to it in one step.

Switch to an existing branch (the modern replacement for git checkout <branch>).

Merge another branch into the current one.

Replay the current branch's commits on top of another branch, for a linear history.

Temporarily shelve uncommitted changes so you can switch branches cleanly.

Re-apply the most recently stashed changes and remove them from the stash.

Connect a local repository to a remote one for the first time.

Fetch and merge changes from the remote branch you're tracking.

Upload local commits to the remote branch you're tracking.

Push a new branch and set it to track the matching remote branch.

Undo the last commit, keeping its changes staged.

Undo the last commit and discard its changes entirely. Destructive — the changes are not recoverable through normal means.

Create a new commit that undoes a previous one, without rewriting history — the safe way to undo a commit that's already been pushed.

Apply a specific commit from another branch onto the current one.

Mark the current commit with a named tag, commonly used for releases.

Download remote changes without merging them into your working branch.

Remove untracked files and directories from the working tree. Destructive and not undoable — review with git clean -nd first.

Show a visual graph of all branches and their commit history.

Show who last modified each line of a file, and in which commit.

Check out another branch into a separate working directory, without switching the current one.

Binary-search commit history to find which commit introduced a bug. Follow with git bisect bad / git bisect good.

Show a log of everywhere HEAD has pointed — useful for recovering commits that seem lost after a reset.

Rewrite the most recent commit (message and/or staged changes). Avoid on commits already pushed and shared.

Interactively edit, squash, or reorder the last n commits before they're shared.

Show the differences between two branches.

Show the full details (metadata and diff) of a single commit.

Create a new package.json with default values.

Install all dependencies listed in package.json.

Add a package as a dependency and install it.

Add a package as a dev-only dependency.

Run a script defined in package.json's "scripts" field.

Install dependencies exactly as locked in package-lock.json — faster and stricter than npm install, intended for CI.

List installed packages that have a newer version available.

Remove a package and its entry from package.json.

Add a package as a dependency (Yarn's equivalent of npm install <package>).

Add a package as a dev-only dependency.

Common convention for running a project's dev server script — check package.json's "scripts" for the actual command.

Run a package's binary without installing it globally — downloads and runs it once.

Install dependencies with pnpm — faster and more disk-efficient than npm via a shared content-addressable store.

Add a package as a dependency with pnpm.

List top-level installed dependencies and their resolved versions.

Check installed dependencies for known security vulnerabilities.

Build an image from a Dockerfile in the current directory.

Start a container from an image, mapping a host port to a container port.

List running containers. Add -a to include stopped ones.

Stream a running container's logs.

Open an interactive shell inside a running container.

Start all services defined in docker-compose.yml in the background.

Stop and remove containers, networks, and volumes created by docker compose up.

Remove unused (dangling) images to free up disk space.

Gracefully stop a running container.

Remove a stopped container. Add -f to force-remove a running one.

List locally stored images.

Download an image from a registry without running it.

Remove all unused containers, networks, and images to reclaim disk space. Only removes stopped/unused resources.

Install PHP dependencies exactly as locked in composer.lock.

Add a PHP package as a dependency and install it.

Scaffold a new Laravel project.

Install a Python package into the current environment.

Write all installed package versions to a requirements file.

Install every package listed in a requirements file.

Create an isolated Python virtual environment in .venv.

Activate a virtual environment (macOS/Linux). On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate.

List all files in the current directory, including hidden ones, with details.

Change the current directory. cd .. goes up one level; cd ~ goes to home.

Print the current working directory's full path.

Create a directory, including any missing parent directories.

Remove a file or directory recursively and without confirmation. Destructive and not undoable — double-check the path first.

Copy a file or directory (recursively for directories).

Move or rename a file or directory.

Make a file executable. Use chmod 644/755 for explicit numeric permissions.

Recursively search files in the current directory for a pattern, showing line numbers.

Search the current directory tree for files matching a name pattern.

Fetch a URL's response body silently. Add -I for headers only, -X POST for a POST request.

Open a secure shell session on a remote machine.

Copy a file to a remote machine over SSH.

Create a compressed tar archive of a directory.

Extract a gzip-compressed tar archive.

List running processes and filter by name.

Force-terminate a process by its process ID.

Show which process is listening on a given port.

Set an environment variable for the current shell session and any child processes.

Show the full path of the executable that would run for a given command name.