Recover a deleted branch
Low risk
What do risk levels mean?
- Read-only
- Inspects state without changing anything.
- Low risk
- Reversible with a routine follow-up command.
- Medium risk
- Changes state; undo path documented.
- Destructive
- Deletes or overwrites; confirmation required.
Recreates a branch that was deleted locally by finding its last commit in the reflog and pointing a new branch at it.
gitbranchrecoverreflog
Parameters
Name to give the recovered branch.
Commit hash the deleted branch pointed to, found in the reflog.
Commands
Find the commit hash the deleted branch last pointed to
git reflog --no-abbrevRecreate the branch at that commit
git branch <branch_name> <commit>Verification
git log --oneline -1 <branch_name>The recovered branch exists and its tip is the expected commit.
Undo
Delete the recreated branch again
git branch -D <branch_name>Pitfalls
- Reflog entries expire (90 days by default); very old deletions may be unrecoverable.
- The reflog is local only; a branch deleted on another machine leaves no trace here.