# Everyday Git

## The commands you'll actually use constantly

Module 2 gave you the model. This module gives you the six commands that make up the vast
majority of real, everyday Git usage.

## `git init` — start tracking a project

```
$ git init
```

Creates a new, empty repository in the current directory (a hidden `.git` folder holds
everything). You only run this ONCE per project, at the very beginning.

## `git status` — where do things stand right now?

Shows what's staged, what's modified-but-unstaged, and what's untracked — the single most
useful command for orienting yourself, and one you'll run constantly, almost reflexively,
before and after almost every other Git command.

## `git add` — stage a change

```
$ git add file.txt        # stage one specific file
$ git add .                # stage everything currently changed
```

## `git commit` — permanently record what's staged

```
$ git commit -m "Add configuration loader"
```

A good commit message describes WHAT changed and, ideally, WHY — future-you (or a teammate)
reading `git log` months later should understand the change without re-reading the entire diff.

## `git log` — see the history

```
$ git log --oneline
a1b2c3d Add configuration loader
9f8e7d6 Initial commit
```

## `git diff` — see exactly what changed, before you commit it

```
$ git diff              # unstaged changes vs. the last commit
$ git diff --staged     # staged changes vs. the last commit
```

Reading your own diff before committing is one of the highest-value habits in this entire
course — catching an accidental leftover debug line, or a change you didn't mean to include,
BEFORE it becomes a permanent part of history.

## Instructor Notes

**Lesson goal:** Convert Module 2's model into the six commands used in nearly every real Git
session — this is the fluency floor for everything that follows in ROOT 03.

**Approximate timing:** 15 minutes read; 10 minutes live.

**Common misconception to watch for:** treating `git add .` as always safe — it stages
EVERYTHING changed, including files you might not have intended to include; `git status` before
`git add .` is the habit that prevents this.

**Demo idea:** run the full init→status→add→commit→log→diff sequence live, narrating `git
status`'s changing output at each step.