Developer Loses Recent Features After Git Cleanup Wiped Unverified App State

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A developer building Tansa, a Bitcoin analysis application using Rails and PostgreSQL, lost recent features after a Git repository cleanup that appeared technically successful. The cleanup produced a clean commit history but restored the app to an older functional state, as no one had first verified which exact version of the running application needed to be preserved. The incident highlighted a critical gap between a tidy Git history and the actual correctness of the software it represents. The developer identified key lessons, including defining a functional reference before altering history, assigning clear ownership of Git operations, and validating the live application rather than just the test suite. The experience is being documented in an upcoming book on Git practices in AI-assisted development, where agents can execute flawed decisions rapidly and at scale.

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