Sometimes you need to wipe your Git history — for example, to clean sensitive data or start fresh while keeping your current code.
This guide explains how to reset commit history safely and push changes to your remote repository.
These operations rewrite Git history.
They are destructive and will break clones or forks that depend on your old commits.
Only do this if:
- You are the only contributor, or
- You have coordinated with your team.
Use this when you want to keep your current files but erase all past commits.
# 1. Create a new orphan branch (no history)
git checkout --orphan latest_branch
# 2. Add all current files
git add -A
# 3. Commit the snapshot
git commit -m "Initial commit"
# 4. Delete the old branch
git branch -D main # or 'master'
# 5. Rename the new branch to 'main'
git branch -m main
# 6. Force push to the remote repository
git push -f origin main✅ Result: A fresh repo with a single new commit — no previous history.
Use this when you only want to remove older commits and keep the last few.
# Example: keep only the last 5 commits
git checkout main
git reset --hard HEAD~5
git push origin main --force✅ Result: Only the last 5 commits remain in history; older commits are gone from remote.
Use this if you want your remote to exactly mirror your local repository.
# Force push all local branches to remote
git push origin --force --all✅ Result: The remote repository is fully replaced by your local version.
To delete all remote tags and push local tags freshly:
# Delete all remote tags
git tag -l | xargs -n 1 git push --delete origin
# Push current tags (if any)
git push origin --tags| Goal | Command(s) |
|---|---|
| Start completely fresh | git checkout --orphan ... git push -f origin main |
| Keep only recent commits | git reset --hard HEAD~N ... git push -f |
| Replace remote with local | git push --force --all |
| Clean remote tags | git tag -l | xargs -n 1 git push --delete origin |