How to delete all commit history in git/github

Deleting the .git folder may cause problems in your git repository. If you want to delete all your commit history but keep the code in its current state, it is very safe to do it as in the following:

1. Checkout

git checkout --orphan latest_branch

2. Add all the files

git add -A

3. Commit the changes

git commit -am "commit message"

4. Delete the branch

git branch -D main

5. Rename the current branch to main

git branch -m main

6. Finally, force update your repository

git push -f origin main

Sometimes you may need to create a brand new branch on a git project that doesn't contain anything present on the other branches nor shares an history with them, called orphan branch.

This snippet describes how to do it:

BRANCH_NAME=$1
git checkout --orphan $BRANCH_NAME
git rm -rf .
rm .gitignore
echo "# $BRANCH_NAME" > README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m "Initial commit for branch $BRANCH_NAME"
git push origin $BRANCH_NAME

This snippet can be used as a sequence of commands, replacing $1 with any value for the branch name, or in a bash script, for example naming it orphan_branch.sh and running it with sh ./orphan_branch.sh new_branch_name.

for more info about --orphan: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-checkout