How do I squash multiple commits into one?

Squashing combines multiple commits into a single one. This is useful for cleaning up a feature branch before merging — turning a series of "WIP" or "fix typo" commits into one coherent commit with a meaningful message.

Start an interactive rebase

To squash the last 3 commits, use git rebase in interactive mode:

git rebase -i HEAD~3

Replace 3 with however many commits back you want to go. Git will open your editor with a list of commits, oldest first:

pick a1b2c3d Add user authentication
pick e4f5a6b Fix validation bug
pick 7c8d9e0 Update tests

You can check your commit history beforehand with git log to identify which commits to squash.

Choose what to do with each commit

Change pick to squash or fixup for any commit you want to fold into the one above it:

pick a1b2c3d Add user authentication
squash e4f5a6b Fix validation bug
fixup 7c8d9e0 Update tests

Save and close the editor. If you used squash, Git opens the editor again to write the final combined message. If you only need to fix a typo in your last commit message, see how to edit your last commit message instead.

Do not squash commits that are already pushed

Squashing rewrites history. If those commits have already been pushed to a shared branch, rewriting them will cause divergence for anyone else who has pulled them.

If you need to squash already-pushed commits, force-push afterward with git push:

git push --force-with-lease origin your-branch

--force-with-lease is safer than --force — it refuses to push if someone else has pushed to the branch since you last fetched.

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