How to fix fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git in Git

First, verify where you are in the filesystem:

pwd

This shows your current working directory. Compare it to where your project should be located.

List directory contents to confirm:

ls -la

Look for:
- Your project files (source code, package.json, etc.)
- A .git directory (hidden, shown with -a flag)

If you don't see your project files, you're in the wrong directory. Navigate to your project:

cd /path/to/your/project

Common locations to check:

# Home directory projects
cd ~/projects/my-project

# Desktop
cd ~/Desktop/my-project

# Documents
cd ~/Documents/my-project

If you're in the correct project directory but Git was never initialized, create a new repository:

git init

This creates a new .git directory and initializes an empty Git repository.

Verify it worked:

git status

You should see output like:

On branch main

No commits yet

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
        your-files-here

Next steps after initializing:

# Add all files to staging
git add .

# Create first commit
git commit -m "Initial commit"

# Add remote origin (if pushing to GitHub/GitLab)
git remote add origin [email protected]:username/repo.git

# Push to remote
git push -u origin main

If your project exists on GitHub, GitLab, or another remote server, clone it instead of initializing:

Clone via SSH (recommended):

git clone [email protected]:username/repository-name.git
cd repository-name

Clone via HTTPS:

git clone https://github.com/username/repository-name.git
cd repository-name

Important: After cloning, you must cd into the cloned directory. The clone command creates a new folder with the repository name.

Clone to a specific directory:

git clone [email protected]:username/repository-name.git my-folder-name
cd my-folder-name

Clone to current directory (if empty):

git clone [email protected]:username/repository-name.git .

Verify the clone worked:

git status
git log --oneline -5

If the .git folder was accidentally deleted but you have a remote copy, you can recover:

Option 1: Re-clone alongside your files

# Backup your current files
cp -r . ../my-project-backup

# Clone fresh into a temp directory
git clone [email protected]:username/repo.git temp-repo

# Move the .git folder to your project
mv temp-repo/.git .

# Clean up
rm -rf temp-repo

# Check status - your changes should show as modifications
git status

Option 2: Re-initialize and force push (use with caution)
If you don't need the remote history:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Reinitialize repository"
git remote add origin [email protected]:username/repo.git
git push -f origin main  # WARNING: This overwrites remote history

Option 3: Fetch remote history into new repo

git init
git remote add origin [email protected]:username/repo.git
git fetch origin
git reset --mixed origin/main  # Keeps your local changes
git status  # Shows what differs from remote

If you're working with Git submodules, you may need to initialize them:

Check if you're in a submodule directory:

# Go to the parent project root
cd ..
git status

If this works, you were in a submodule that needs initialization.

Initialize all submodules:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Or clone with submodules from the start:

git clone --recurse-submodules [email protected]:username/repo.git

Update existing clone to include submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Check submodule status:

git submodule status

If a submodule shows a - prefix, it's not initialized. If it shows a + prefix, it's at a different commit than recorded.

IDEs and terminals sometimes open in unexpected directories:

VS Code:
- Check the folder open in VS Code (look at Explorer sidebar)
- Use File > Open Folder to open your project directory
- Use the integrated terminal which opens in the workspace root
- Check if you have a multi-root workspace open

Terminal:

# See where you are
pwd

# Navigate to project
cd ~/path/to/project

# Optionally, add an alias to your shell config
# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias myproject="cd ~/projects/my-project"

IntelliJ/WebStorm:
- Check the Project view shows the correct root
- Use Terminal tab which opens in project root
- File > Open should point to the directory containing .git

Common issue with new terminal tabs:
New terminal tabs/windows often open in your home directory. Either:
1. Navigate to your project each time
2. Configure your terminal to remember the last directory
3. Use IDE's integrated terminal which opens in the project root

If you're not sure where your Git repositories are located, search for them:

Find all .git directories under your home folder:

find ~ -name ".git" -type d 2>/dev/null

Find .git directories in common locations:

find ~/projects ~/Documents ~/Desktop -name ".git" -type d 2>/dev/null

Search for a specific project:

find ~ -type d -name "my-project-name" 2>/dev/null

Use locate (faster, but requires updatedb):

locate -i "my-project-name"

On macOS, use Spotlight:

mdfind "kMDItemFSName == 'my-project-name' && kMDItemContentType == 'public.folder'"

Once you find the correct directory, navigate to it and verify:

cd /path/to/found/project
git status