Git Merge vs Rebase: When to Use Each

Git merge vs rebase is one of the most debated topics in developer workflows. Both commands integrate changes from one branch into another. Both are correct. But they produce fundamentally different commit histories and create different tradeoffs for your team. Understanding when to use each isn't about picking a winner — it's about knowing what each command does to your repository's history and choosing the right tool for the context. What Git Merge Does git merge takes the commits from one branch and combines them with another, creating a new merge commit that records the combination point. Before merge: main: A -- B -- C \ feature: D -- E After git merge: main: A -- B -- C -- M \ / feature: D -- E The merge commit M has two parents: C (the last commit on main) and E (the last commit on feature). This preserves the complete history — you can see exactly when branches diverged and when they rejoined. git checkout main git merge feature-branch With a fast-forward merge (when main has n