git switch

The intent-clear replacement for the branch half of checkout.

🎯 What & why

Switch branches, cleanly. The modern, intent-only replacement for git checkout's branch-switching half. New in Git 2.23.

🧠 Mental model

switch <name> updates HEAD to point at branch <name> and updates the working tree to match. That's it — no path-restoring side missions, no overloaded behavior.

🛠️ Synopsis

git switch [<options>] [--no-guess] <branch>
git switch [<options>] --detach [<start-point>]
git switch [<options>] (-c | -C) <new-branch> [<start-point>]
git switch [<options>] --orphan <new-branch>

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`-c <name>`	Create and switch to a new branch.
`-C <name>`	Same but force-reset if exists.
`--detach`	Detached HEAD at a commit.
`--discard-changes`	Throw away local changes that block the switch (rare; usually you stash).
`--orphan <name>`	Create a new branch with no parents.

💡 Use cases

Daily branch switching.
Creating a branch for a quick spike (switch -c spike/x).
Hopping back to where you just were (switch -).

🧪 Examples

Switch to an existing branch.

$ git switch main

Create and switch.

$ git switch -c feature/login

Switch back to the previous branch (like cd -).

$ git switch -

Detached HEAD at a tag.

$ git switch --detach v1.2

🎓 Recommendations

Replace git checkout in your fingers and aliases. Within a year you'll wonder why anyone still uses checkout for this.
switch - is one of the great quality-of-life flags.

🪤 Common pitfalls

If your working tree has changes that would be overwritten, switch refuses. Stash, commit, or --discard-changes (knowing what you're losing).
switch -c <name> doesn't push the new branch — you still need git push -u origin <name>.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.