Git & GitHub
Commit
A saved, permanent snapshot of your entire project at one point in time.
Reviewed by the RadarTrek editorial team · June 2026
A commit is Git's core unit of history — a complete, self-contained snapshot of every file in your project, labelled with a message describing what changed and why. Commits are not diffs you replay; each one is a full photograph you can return to at any time.
Why it matters
- —Commits are your undo button — you can always get back to any committed state.
- —A good commit message is a record for future-you: what changed, and why.
- —Frequent, small commits make mistakes easy to isolate and reverse.
Where to learn this
🎓
Commits: The Snapshot Mental Model
Git & GitHub course
This is the exact lesson that covers this term in depth — with examples, diagrams, and a hands-on exercise.