How to fix error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge in Git

First, understand what files Git is protecting:

git status

This shows all modified, staged, and untracked files. The files listed in the error message will appear here as "modified" or "staged".

If you want to keep your local changes and apply them after the merge, use git stash:

# Save your changes temporarily
git stash

# Now pull/merge will work
git pull

# Restore your changes
git stash pop

If there are conflicts when popping the stash, Git will notify you and you can resolve them manually. Your stashed changes are still safe in the stash list even if pop fails.

To see what's in your stash:

git stash list
git stash show -p stash@{0}

If your changes are ready to be saved permanently, commit them before merging:

git add .
git commit -m "WIP: Save local changes before merge"
git pull

If there are conflicts after pulling, Git will enter merge conflict resolution mode where you can address each conflict individually. This is often cleaner than resolving stash conflicts.

If you don't need your local changes, you can discard them:

Discard changes to specific files:

git checkout -- path/to/file.txt

Discard all uncommitted changes:

git checkout -- .

Or using the newer restore command (Git 2.23+):

git restore path/to/file.txt
git restore .

After discarding, you can proceed with your merge or pull.

For a streamlined workflow, use autostash which automatically stashes before rebasing and pops after:

git pull --rebase --autostash

This is equivalent to:

git stash
git pull --rebase
git stash pop

To make this the default behavior:

git config --global rebase.autoStash true

As a last resort, if you want to completely discard local changes and match the remote:

git reset --hard HEAD
git pull

Warning: This permanently deletes all uncommitted changes. Only use this if you're certain you don't need your local modifications.

For an even more aggressive reset to match remote exactly:

git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/main