What is Git? The One-Minute Mental Model

What is Git? The One-Minute Mental Model

Git is distributed version control. In practice, that means:

• You can work locally (commit, branch, diff, log) without waiting on a server.
• Every commit is a snapshot of your project at that moment.
• History is stored as content-addressed objects (Git hashes content so identical content is reused).

The workflow you’ll use daily

Most of Git is a loop:

1. Edit files in your working directory.
2. Stage changes with git add.
3. Create a snapshot with git commit.
4. Move and organize work with git branch / git switch.
5. Combine work with git merge or re-apply it with git rebase.

The minimum commands (copy/paste)

git init
git status
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

git diff
git log --oneline --graph

Where this guide goes next

If Git clicked and you want the deeper “how collaboration really works” view, continue with:

• Git & GitHub: From Zero to Collaborating Like a Pro