How to Safely Remove Accidentally Committed Secrets from Git History

Developers who accidentally push API keys or passwords to a remote Git repository must treat the secret as compromised immediately, since automated bots can scrape public repositories within seconds. The first and non-negotiable step is to revoke or rotate the leaked credential at its source before attempting any cleanup. For secrets only in the most recent unpushed commit, a simple git commit --amend can remove the file, while older or already-pushed secrets require history rewriting tools such as git filter-repo or BFG Repo-Cleaner followed by a force push. After rewriting history, all collaborators must re-clone or hard-reset their local copies to prevent the secret from being reintroduced via old branches. Long-term prevention relies on adding sensitive files to .gitignore before the first commit, using a secrets manager, and enforcing pre-commit scanning tools like Gitleaks.