Daily Development Workflow

These core commands form the everyday cycle of tracking, inspecting, and snapshotting changes in MiniGit.

1. Initialize a Repository (minigit init)

Initializes a new MiniGit repository in the current working directory, setting up the internal .minigit object database, references, and stage.

minigit init

Output:

Initialized empty mini_git repository in C:/dev/my-project/.minigit/

2. Check Repository Status (minigit status)

Compares your active working directory, the staging index, and the HEAD commit to report:

• Staged changes ready to be committed
• Unstaged modifications and deletions
• Untracked files (ignoring rules from .minigitignore)

minigit status

3. Stage Changes (minigit add)

Adds file contents to the staging area and prepares them for snapshotting:

# Stage all new, modified, and deleted files
minigit add .

# Stage specific files
minigit add src/main.cpp include/header.h

# Stage an entire subdirectory recursively
minigit add src/

4. Record Snapshots (minigit commit)

Serializes the index into a new permanent commit object:

# Standard commit
minigit commit -m "Implement core parsing engine"

# Commit with explicit author metadata
minigit commit -m "Add unit tests" --author "Jane Doe <jane@example.com>"

5. View History (minigit log)

Walks backward through commit history from HEAD:

minigit log

6. Inspect Differences (minigit diff)

Computes unified diffs across working trees and snapshots:

# Unstaged modifications
minigit diff

# Staged changes prepared for commit
minigit diff --cached

7. Inspect Objects (minigit show)

Examines commits, tags, trees, or blobs:

# Show HEAD commit details and patch
minigit show

# Show specific commit or tag
minigit show 7e9a12c
minigit show v1.0.0

8. Clean Untracked Files (minigit clean)

Removes untracked files safely from the workspace:

# Preview what would be deleted (dry run)
minigit clean -n

# Force deletion of untracked files and directories
minigit clean -fd