Git Stash: Save, Apply, and Manage Work in Progress

Complete Guide to Git Stash

git stash temporarily shelves changes so you can switch context (branches, tasks) without committing incomplete work.

Basic Stash Operations

# Stash all tracked changes
git stash

# Stash with a descriptive message
git stash push -m "WIP: user authentication form"

# Stash including untracked files
git stash -u

# Stash everything (including ignored files)
git stash -a

Retrieving Stashed Changes

# Apply the most recent stash and remove it
git stash pop

# Apply without removing from stash list
git stash apply

# Apply a specific stash
git stash apply stash@{2}

Managing Multiple Stashes

# List all stashes
git stash list

# Show what is in a stash
git stash show stash@{0}

# Show the diff of a stash
git stash show -p stash@{0}

# Drop a specific stash
git stash drop stash@{1}

# Clear all stashes
git stash clear

Stash Specific Files

# Stash only specific files (git 2.13+)
git stash push -m "config changes" src/config.ts src/env.ts

# Use interactive mode to select hunks
git stash push -p

Create a Branch from a Stash

# Create a new branch and apply the stash
git stash branch feature/from-stash

This is useful when the stash conflicts with changes on the current branch.

Handling Stash Conflicts

When git stash pop or apply causes conflicts:

# Resolve conflicts manually, then:
git add <resolved-files>

# The stash is NOT automatically dropped on conflict
# Drop it manually after resolving:
git stash drop

Best Practices

1. Always add a message with -m -- stashes without descriptions are hard to identify later
2. Do not accumulate stashes -- they are meant to be temporary
3. Prefer branches for longer-lived work-in-progress
4. Use -u to include untracked files when stashing