Why Git matters when you ship fast

If you build quickly with AI tools, you'll generate many code changes in short bursts. Without Git, it's easy to lose progress, overwrite working code, or break production by accident.

The core mental model

Think of Git as a timeline of snapshots:

• Working directory: your current files.
• Staging area: the changes you want in the next snapshot.
• Commit history: saved checkpoints you can always return to.

When you commit often, you gain confidence:

1. You can undo mistakes quickly.
2. You can explain what changed and why.
3. You can collaborate without stepping on each other.

Your minimum setup

Before coding, run this once on your machine:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

Then in every new project:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "chore: initial project snapshot"

That is enough to avoid the most painful mistakes while you keep building.