Git Rituals

“Ink without preservation is just spilt thought.”

This is the bare minimum Git you need to keep the Grand Archives of Sacro Elcarion updated.
No branching wizardry, no rebasing nightmares, just the daily rituals.

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1. The usual flow

When you’ve added or edited notes in the Archives folder:

1. See what changed
2. Stage the changes
3. Commit them with a message
4. Push to the remote (GitHub)

In terminal (inside the repo folder):

# 1. See what changed
git status

# 2. See the exact lines changed (optional)
git diff

# 3. Stage everything you've changed
git add .

# 4. Commit with a message
git commit -m "Update session notes and lore"

# 5. Push to GitHub
git push

That’s the main ritual. If you only remember this, you’re fine.

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2. Before you start writing: pull latest

If someone else (or future you on another machine) has made changes, pull first:

git pull

This grabs the latest version of the Grand Archives from GitHub before you begin editing.

Habit:

• Sit down to work - git pull
• Finish your updates - git status > git add . > git commit > git push

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3. Reading the status like an archivist

git status

You’ll see files as:

• modified: you changed them
• new file: you created them
• deleted: you removed them

Anything under “Changes to be committed” is already staged.
Anything under “Changes not staged for commit” still needs git add.

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4. Making clean, meaningful commits

Good commit messages help you remember what changed later.

Examples:

git commit -m "Add Session 05 recap and Emberfall updates"
git commit -m "Create template for conflicts under Lore"
git commit -m "Update Elion NPC details and fix typos"

Avoid:

git commit -m "stuff"
git commit -m "fix"
git commit -m "idk man"

Your future self will hate you.

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5. If Git complains about conflicts

Sometimes, after a git pull, Git may say there are merge conflicts.

This means both your local copy and the GitHub copy changed the same lines.
VS Code or your editor will usually highlight this with markers like:

<<<<<<< HEAD
your version
=======
remote version
>>>>>>> main

You’ll need to:

1. Edit the file to choose or merge the correct lines.
2. Remove the conflict markers (<<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>).
3. Stage and commit again:

git add path/to/file.md
git commit -m "Resolve merge conflict in session notes"
git push

If it looks scary: stop, ask the Scribe.

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6. Undoing mistakes (light version)

You staged too much

git reset

This un-stages everything but keeps your file changes.

You changed a file but haven’t committed yet

git checkout -- path/to/file.md

This discards your local changes to that file and resets it to the last committed version.

⚠️ This cannot be undone. Only use this if you’re sure you don’t want your edits.

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7. Quick reference

git status          # What changed?
git diff            # What exactly changed?
git add .           # Stage all changes
git commit -m "..." # Save a snapshot with a message
git pull            # Get latest from GitHub
git push            # Send your changes to GitHub

If you ever feel lost, this sequence will usually get you home:

git status
git pull
git add .
git commit -m "Update Archives"
git push

The Archives don’t demand perfection, only consistency.