Fix · GitHub and Git

"You are in detached HEAD state"

What you may see

Git says detached HEAD and my commits seem to belong to no branch
I checked out an old version and now I am lost

Most likely cause

You moved to a single old save point, not onto a branch, so new commits have no branch to live on.

Check first (about two minutes)

Run git status: it says HEAD detached at <hash>.
Run git log --oneline -3 and see if any commit is newer than the branch.

The fix prompt

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The exact error or what you see

What you did before it happened

Kept only in this browser, on this device. Keys and passwords are removed before anything is saved.

Prompt language

You are a patient senior engineer who knows Git and GitHub very well and explains them to people who are not developers. I am not a developer, so explain every step in plain words and tell me exactly which button, menu or command you mean. If you are not sure about something, say so; do not guess.

THE PROBLEM
"You are in detached HEAD state"

THE EXACT ERROR OR WHAT I SEE
[paste the exact error here]

WHAT I DID BEFORE IT HAPPENED
[write in a few words what you did before it happened]

MOST LIKELY CAUSE
You moved to a single old save point, not onto a branch, so new commits have no branch to live on.

DO THESE STEPS, IN THIS ORDER
1. Run git status and git log --oneline -5 and show me.
2. If I made new commits here, save them first: git switch -c rescue-work.
3. If I made no changes, go back with git switch main (use the real branch name).
4. Explain how to look at an old version safely next time.
Stop and tell me if what you see does not match a step. Do not skip ahead.

CHECK THAT IT WORKED
- git status shows "On branch ..." and my work is on a named branch.
Tell me exactly what I should see on the screen when it works.

DO NOT CHANGE
- Do not run git checkout of another branch before saving new commits.
- Anything I did not ask about: the design, the text, other pages, other settings or the data.
- Do not delete files, data or branches, do not reset or force-push, and do not rewrite history, unless you first show me exactly what would be lost and I say yes.
- Do not paste, print or ask me to paste a password or secret key into this chat. If one is needed, tell me which settings page of the right service to store it in.

WHEN YOU FINISH
Explain in simple words what you changed (file by file or setting by setting), why you changed it, and how I can undo it.

Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Cursor, then follow what it says.

After you tried it, did it work?

Steps

Run git status and git log --oneline -5 and show me.
If I made new commits here, save them first: git switch -c rescue-work.
If I made no changes, go back with git switch main (use the real branch name).
Explain how to look at an old version safely next time.

Do not do this

Do not run git reset --hard here.
Do not run git checkout of another branch before saving new commits.

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