How to Discard Local Uncommitted Changes in Git

Quick Answer: To discard uncommitted modifications in a specific file, run git restore <file>. To discard all modifications in tracked files across the entire project, run git restore .. To remove untracked files and folders, run git clean -fd. To wipe out all changes (staged, unstaged, and untracked), run git reset --hard && git clean -fd.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

1. Discarding Modifications in Tracked Files

Discard edits in a single file

$ git restore src/app.js

Discard all modified tracked files in the workspace

$ git restore .

Git < 2.23 alternative: Before Git 2.23 introduced git restore, developers used git checkout -- . to achieve the same result.

2. Unstaging Staged Changes (Without Losing Edits)

If you ran git add . and want to unstage files while keeping your code edits intact:

# Unstage a single file
$ git restore --staged package.json

# Unstage all files
$ git restore --staged .

For more details on how staging works, read /git-add and /git-status.

3. Removing Untracked Files and Directories (git clean)

Files that have never been added to Git are untracked. git restore does not delete untracked files. Use git clean:

# 1. Always run a dry run first to see what will be deleted
$ git clean -nd

# 2. Force delete untracked files and directories (-f = force, -d = directories)
$ git clean -fd

To also remove ignored files (e.g. node_modules/ or build output):

$ git clean -xfd

4. Temporary Saving Instead of Discarding (git stash)

If you aren’t sure whether you’ll need your local changes later, don’t discard them permanently. Stash them instead:

# Save uncommitted changes to temporary storage
$ git stash -u

# Restore them later whenever you're ready
$ git stash pop

Learn more in our guide on /git-stash.