git restore Tutorial

The short version

git restore is for restoring file content to a known state. It focuses on paths, not on moving branch pointers.

Why restore exists

Older Git workflows used git checkout -- <path> for many file-recovery tasks. Git later introduced restore so that “switch branches” and “restore file content” would be expressed by different commands.

Two main jobs

Restore the working tree

git restore README.md

This discards unstaged working tree changes and restores the file from the index.

Unstage a file

git restore --staged README.md

This resets the staged version back to HEAD, which makes it a clear way to undo git add.

Restore both index and working tree

git restore --staged --worktree README.md

Use this when you want to unstage and discard the local working copy together.

Restore from a specific commit

git restore --source=HEAD~1 src/app.ts

That lets you recover one path from another commit without moving the entire branch.

restore vs reset

• restore focuses on file state
• reset can affect the index and may also move HEAD

If your real question is “How do I get this file back?”, start with restore.