Monday morning. My heart literally stopped. I ran git push --force on PC_Workman — and 130 commits became 1. Permanently.
Eight months of build-in-public history: gone. Every proof this wasn't built over a weekend by some "turbo super AI." Vanished. I panicked — searched reflog, old branches, GitHub API endpoints. Nothing.
Then I remembered something I'd done three weeks earlier, almost by accident: I created an archive branch. Not even as a proper backup — just "to keep old files around for reference." I checked it. 90 commits inside. Not perfect — I lost about 40. But 90 is infinitely better than 1.
What actually shipped
The rest of the week became cleanup mode:
- rewrote
CONTRIBUTING.mdfrom feedback (it had got lost in the chaos — turns out people actually need it) - cleaned up the README (killed dead comments and empty bullets)
- made the entire codebase English-only (translated Polish UI strings across 12 files)
- removed old marketing docstrings and placeholder notes
- refreshed the PC Workman and GuideAI repos with new screenshots and proper tags
What broke me along the way
- spent 3 hours translating strings I was sure were already done
- kept finding more Polish text every single time I thought I was finished
backup-YYYYMMDD branch before any risky git operation. "Clean code" has hidden layers you only see when disaster strikes. And Reddit feedback hurts… but it usually makes the project better.
Slowly moving toward v2.0 and the Microsoft Store. 800+ hours, 20 stars, ~90 downloads. But I'm still here. Still shipping. Still scarred.
What's the worst git disaster you've ever survived?