Hack Your Workflow: 3 Hidden Features in Git/GitHub

If you spend any time coding with Git, you probably know the basics: clone, commit, push, pull. But Git and GitHub hide a bunch of features that can make your workflow smoother, faster, and slightly more satisfying. Let’s peek under the hood.

1. Auto-Correcting Mistyped Commands

Ever fat-fingered a Git command and stared at the terminal wondering what you just broke? Git has a built-in friendly nudge. Enable it with:

git config --global help.autocorrect 1

Now, if you type `git comit` by accident, Git will pause briefly, then run `git commit` for you. You get a small delay to panic before it quietly fixes your typo.

2. Stashing Part of a File

You know stashing changes is great when switching branches. But what if you only want to stash a few lines instead of the whole file? Git lets you interactively choose hunks:

git stash push -p

Git will walk you through each change hunk and ask if you want to stash it. You can stash only what you don’t want to commit yet, leaving the rest in your working directory. Very handy when juggling multiple ideas.

3. GitHub’s Draft Pull Requests

On GitHub, you can open a pull request even if your work isn’t ready for review. Mark it as a draft, and it’s like saying: “Heads up, I’m working on this, but don’t merge yet.” It lets teammates see progress, give early feedback, or just know you exist in the codebase.

gh pr create --draft --title "Feature X in progress" --body "Still refining edge cases"

You can still push more commits to the branch, and the draft PR updates automatically. It’s a great balance between sharing work early and keeping control.

Putting It All Together

These features might seem small, but they change the rhythm of how you work. Fewer mistakes, more flexibility, and a smoother handoff between your brain and the terminal. Combine them and you’ll start feeling like Git is not just a tool, but a slightly overachieving teammate.

Even if you only pick up one of these tricks today, it will shave off tiny frustrations that add up over months of coding. And if you mix them with your usual commits, merges, and rebases, you’ll wonder why you didn’t know about these all along.