git · Git
The message
You are in 'detached HEAD' state.
What it means
HEAD points straight at a commit instead of at a branch name, so any commit you make here gets no name attached to it. You end up here by checking out a commit hash or a tag, by working inside a submodule, or because CI checked out one specific commit. To keep what you did, git switch -c name creates a branch right here and loses nothing. If you simply git switch main instead, the commits you made have nothing pointing at them: the reflog can still find them for a while, and then garbage collection removes them.
The fix
git switch -c rescue- Printed by
- git
- Git
- 29
Almost every git error is a refusal that means "doing that from this state would lose something"; fatal: means git stopped without changing anything, and the hint: lines under the first line usually carry the actual remedy.
Reading an error message
- Read from the first line down. The lower you go the more it is about the tool’s internals; the cause is usually at the top.
- If there is a file and a line number, start there — not the top stack frame, but the topmost line that names a file you wrote.
- Search the message verbatim, but strip your own paths and variable names first; those are what stop the search from matching.
- The same condition is worded differently across tool versions. If results look wrong, add the version number to the query.
- Before pasting a fix, check what it throws away. Some of these cannot be undone.
Common questions
Q. What does “You are in 'detached HEAD' state.” mean?
HEAD points straight at a commit instead of at a branch name, so any commit you make here gets no name attached to it. You end up here by checking out a commit hash or a tag, by working inside a submodule, or because CI checked out one specific commit. To keep what you did, git switch -c name creates a branch right here and loses nothing. If you simply git switch main instead, the commits you made have nothing pointing at them: the reflog can still find them for a while, and then garbage collection removes them.
Q. How do I fix it?
git switch -c rescue — before running it, check the explanation above for what this command discards.
Q. Which tool prints this?
git. It sits under Git, and the message runs to 6 words.