While working on a GitHub repository where I’m building the backend, I noticed that my commit history needed some restructuring.

Some commit messages were clear, while others were inconsistent or even a bit playful like “read only Friday :)”. At the time, it felt cool to include something fun in my history. But as I thought about making my repository open for collaboration, I realized that this wasn’t the best way to present my work.

I wanted a clean, readable commit history that told the story of my project without any distractions. To do that, I turned to Git rebase. In this post, I’ll share how I used it to organize my commit history step by step.

Why Did I Care About My Commit History?

Your commit history is more than just a log of changes - it’s part of the identity of your project. If you’ve ever opened a repository to find a series of unclear or poorly written commit messages, you know how it can impact the project’s clarity.

Using Git rebase, I was able to rewrite my commit history into something clear, logical, and professional.

Here’s what I wanted to achieve:

  • To make commit messages meaningful: Descriptive messages help everyone understand the history of changes. So update “read only Friday :)”
  • To correct mistakes: Typos like “chunksCahce " (instead of chunksCache) made the history harder to read.
  • To merge redundant commits: Small, unrelated commits clutter the history unnecessarily.

To edit my commit history, I used interactive rebase. First, I opened the last six commits for review:

git rebase -i HEAD~6

This command brought up an editor showing my recent commits:

 pick 43d5cee perf(neu-web-test): Scale down wp-test hpa min replicas
 pick 88ccfc2 feat(loki): Add chunksCache and resultsCache resources 
 pick 825ca0d Fix typo in adding chunksCahce logic
 pick a9f12b3 increase cpu requests 
 pick bd9e4a8 Update README
 pick 05d3f61 read only Friday :)

In the rebase editor, I updated the commands to specify what I wanted to do with each commit:


pick 43d5cee perf(neu-web-test): Scale down wp-test hpa min replicas
pick 88ccfc2 feat(loki): Add chunksCache and resultsCache resources 
fixup 825ca0d Fix typo in adding chunksCahce logic
pick a9f12b3 increase cpu requests 
reword bd9e4a8 Update README
reword 05d3f61 read only Friday :)

Here’s what these commands mean:

  • pick: Keep the commit as-is.
  • fixup: Combine the commit with the one above it, discarding its message.
  • reword: Edit the commit message.

Edit Commit Messages

After saving the file, Git guided me through the changes step by step.

For the commit “read only Friday :)”, I rewrote the message to something clearer:


Restrict editing to Fridays

Update README with setup instructions


Update README with setup instructions

Once the rebase was complete, I checked the updated commit history:


git log --oneline

The new history looked like this:


43d5cee perf(neu-web-test): Scale down wp-test hpa min replicas
88ccfc2 feat(loki): Add chunksCache and resultsCache resources 
a9f12b3 increase cpu requests 
bd9e4a8 Update README with setup instructions
05d3f61 Restrict editing to Fridays

Organizing my commit history with Git rebase wasn’t just about the technical details it was about presenting my work in the best light possible. Now, I feel confident sharing my repository with collaborators, knowing it’s clear and easy to navigate.

If you’ve been avoiding Git rebase, I’d say give it a try. It’s simpler than you might think, and it really helps keep your commits clean.