Git: You are in 'detached HEAD' state and cannot merge

fatal: You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You cannot merge or rebase uncommitted changes onto a remote branch.

Immediate Remediation

bash

# 1. Create and switch to a temporary rescue branch with current state:
git switch -c rescue-branch

# 2. Switch back to your main/feature branch and merge the rescue work:
git checkout main
git merge rescue-branch

# 3. Clean up the rescue branch after successful verification:
git branch -d rescue-branch

Root Cause Analysis

HEAD points directly to a specific commit hash rather than a named branch pointer, usually caused by git checkout <commit-sha>.

Verification & Guardrails

Never run git reset --hard in a detached HEAD state without first creating a rescue branch.
Use git reflog to recover lost commits if you switched away before branching.

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