Git• 5 MIN READ
Kirito

Kirito

6/10/2026•5 min read

The Day Git Saved My 2 Hours of Work

A failed Husky pre-commit hook made me think I lost 18 files and 2 hours of work — until I discovered how Git stash saved everything.

The Day Git Saved My 2 Hours of Work

A few days ago, I had one of the scariest moments in my development journey. I was working on a project where I had configured Husky with lint-staged to automatically run ESLint before every commit. Everything looked perfect — better code quality, automatic checks, cleaner commits. Or at least that’s what I thought.

The Situation

I spent almost 2 hours building a feature.

  • Created around 18 new files
  • Wrote all the logic
  • Styled components
  • Refactored some code After finishing everything, I ran:
git commit -m "add new feature"

Suddenly… An error appeared. At first, I thought it was just a normal lint issue. But then I checked Git status and almost had a heart attack. Only these files were showing:

pnpm-lock.yaml
global.css

All my other files were gone. Not hidden. Not unstaged. Gone.

Panic Mode Activated

For a moment, I genuinely believed I had lost 2 hours of work. I started checking:

  • VS Code history
  • Local file search
  • Recently deleted files
  • Git status again and again Nothing. I was completely confused.

Finding the Real Problem

After carefully reading the error logs, I finally noticed the actual issue:

eslint-plugin-react-hooks is missing

Because Husky was running lint-staged during commit, the lint process failed. And when lint-staged fails, it can temporarily move your staged changes into Git stash to protect your working state. At that moment, I didn’t know this behavior existed.

The Discovery That Saved Me

First, I installed the missing package:

pnpm add -D eslint-plugin-react-hooks

Then I started researching what happens when lint-staged fails. That’s when I discovered this command:

git stash list

And there it was. My changes. My 18 files. My 2 hours of work. Safe inside a stash created automatically by lint-staged.

Recovering Everything

I restored the files using:

git stash apply

And instantly, all my files came back. That feeling was unbelievable.

What I Learned

That day taught me several important lessons:

1. Git Is More Powerful Than I Thought

Before this incident, I only used basic Git commands. Now I understand how useful stash really is.

2. Always Read Error Messages Carefully

The real issue was just one missing package:

eslint-plugin-react-hooks

But panic made me ignore the actual error.

3. Husky + lint-staged Is Great — But Know How It Works

Automation is powerful, but you should understand what happens behind the scenes. Especially when tools modify staged files automatically.

Useful Commands

Check existing stashes

git stash list

Restore latest stash

git stash apply

Restore and remove stash

git stash pop

Conclusion

That day I went from: “I lost everything.” to “I love Git.” And honestly, after understanding stash properly, I trust Git much more now. Sometimes the best Git lessons come from panic moments.