clean-branch-history

Cleaning up git commit history involves reorganizing a feature branch's commits into logical units before merging. This process folds fixups and revert commits into coherent history, minimizing noise so reviewers can focus on substantive changes.

Safe rebasing involves creating a pre-cleanup tag and verifying tree-hash equivalence before and after the rebase. This ensures code changes are preserved while eliminating nonessential noise, avoiding history drift.

Squashing fixup commits automatically is possible by guiding an interactive rebase through a scripted GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR. This folds related fixes into their respective commits to produce a coherent history.

Reorganize commits during the code review preparation phase on a feature branch. This transforms a noisy history into coherent, reviewable commits before merging, minimizing noise from review-driven changes.

If the tree hash changes after a rebase, rollback using the pre-cleanup tag created before the process began. The workflow demands tree-hash equivalence and provides rollback guidance to restore the branch.