Using staging in Git means you’re preparing changes for a commit. Here’s a breakdown of how it works and the commands you use:

🧠 What is the Staging Area?

Think of the staging area (also called the index) as a buffer between your working directory and your project history (commits). It lets you group and review changes before saving them permanently with a commit.

🛠️ Common Git Staging Commands

1. Check what’s changed

git status
  • Shows which files are modified, new, or deleted, and whether they are staged or not.

2. Stage a specific file

git add <filename>
  • Adds the changes in that file to the staging area.

3. Stage all changed files

git add .
  • Stages everything in the current directory and below.

4. Stage part of a file (interactive)

git add -p
  • Lets you stage specific hunks (sections) of a file. Great for committing logically separated changes.

5. Unstage a file

git restore --staged <filename>
  • Removes the file from the staging area (but keeps the changes in your working directory).

6. View what’s staged

git diff --staged
  • Shows the differences between the staged files and the last commit.

7. Commit staged changes

git commit -m "Your commit message"

🧪 Example Workflow

# 1. Make changes to files
# 2. Check status
git status

# 3. Stage a file
git add app.js

# 4. Confirm what's staged
git diff --staged

# 5. Commit the staged file
git commit -m "Add new feature to app.js"

Want a visual Git staging tool too? Tools like GitKraken, SourceTree, or git gui can help.