Need help recovering lost Commit SHA from May 11th after accidental force push

[Krystyn-Kevin]

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Question

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Hi Community Managers and GitHub Staff,

I accidentally ran a git push --force from my terminal today. This unfortunately overwrote my main branch and wiped out 2 months of development history, losing over 60 previous commits.

Because I am on the free tier, I cannot submit a technical support ticket. However, my entire project history is lost.

Could a GitHub staff member please check the server-side Remote Reflog or Push Events log for my repository? I explicitly need the Commit SHA (Hash ID) for my last successful commit/push from May 11th, 2026, so I can stitch my history back together.

Repository details:

• Username: krystyn-kevin
• Repository Name: krystyn-kevin.github.io
• Branch: main

Thank you so much for your time and help!

[Krystyn-Kevin]

Hi @radwanalmsora,
Thank you for your valuable answer.
Unfortunately I have lost my commit history and not able to get back my sha with help this site api.github.com/repos/krystyn-kevin/krystyn-kevin.github.io/events, i have also tried with browser history yesternight itself, all went in vain. I do not use vs code editor and no timeline possibilities. I made a mistake, i followed blindly the chatgpt words to git push force into my repo via terminal since i am new to this area.
I have found my codes back in browser history with deepseek conversation, but lost my commit countings.

[P-r-e-m-i-u-m]

Sorry this happened. The safest path is to avoid making more destructive changes until you have copied whatever commit IDs you can find.

Here is the order I would try:

1. Check your local reflog first

On the machine where the work existed, run:

git reflog --date=iso

Look for entries from around May 11, then create a backup branch before resetting anything:

git branch recovery/YOUR_DATE YOUR_SHA

This is safer than immediately running git reset --hard, because it preserves the recovered point while you inspect it.

2. Search GitHub Events, but be aware of limits

For a public repo, this can sometimes show recent push events:

https://api.github.com/repos/krystyn-kevin/krystyn-kevin.github.io/events

Search the JSON for PushEvent, before, head, and commits around the date you need. This API is useful, but it is not a guaranteed long-term audit log, so I would not rely on it as the only recovery path.

3. Check other local copies

If you used another laptop, Codespaces, a deployment machine, or an IDE with local history, check those too. Any clone that had the old main can recover the SHA through git reflog or git log --all.

4. Check GitHub-side references

Also look at:

• open/closed PRs
• GitHub Actions run logs from before the force push
• Pages deployment history, if this was published with GitHub Pages
• forks or collaborator clones

Once you find the SHA, first make a branch from it:

git fetch origin
git branch recovered-main YOUR_SHA
git log --oneline recovered-main

Only after you confirm the history is correct should you decide whether to restore main with a force push. If anyone else works on the repo, coordinate before doing that.

[v-ember]

Hi @Krystyn-Kevin ,

This community is managed by GitHub employees, but it is not a support forum. The only place to go for answers to account-specific questions like this one is opening a ticket on our Support page.

This is a public forum, and the community is unable to assist with nor escalate your ticket, but we can assure you it is in the right place. It will be answered in the order it was received based on our team's resources and the amount of tickets ahead of yours.

As no other Community Discussions team members will be able to provide additional help with account related questions I am going to close this discussion. We appreciate your understanding and patience while Support works through your request!