When working with complex Git workflows, knowing how to access and manage rebase logs is critical. A git rebase rewrites history, replaying commits onto a new base. This can solve branching complexity, but it can also hide the source of a regression unless you track the rebase process. The logs show you every replayed commit, in order, with the original and rewritten hashes. Without them, debugging is guesswork.
Git stores rebase logs in .git/rebase-merge or .git/rebase-apply depending on the type of rebase. Accessing them means looking for files like done, todo, and original-commit. Each file provides insight into the sequence and state of the rebase. done lists completed steps. todo shows what’s next. original-commit points to the commit before rewriting began. This data is temporary—once the rebase ends, the logs vanish unless you copy them.
For teams that commit through a proxy, visibility gets harder. A Git rebase logs access proxy can capture and store this data centrally, making historical rebases traceable. Instead of relying on a developer’s local .git state, the proxy intercepts rebase operations, logs them, and provides a single source of truth. It preserves commit mappings, conflict resolutions, and timestamps. This allows auditability of what happened, who resolved conflicts, and how the history changed.