How to undo the last commit and keep the changes in the staging area?

git reset --soft HEAD~1

To undo the last commit and keep the changes in the staging area use git reset --soft HEAD~1.

The reset command resets your current HEAD to a specific commit, without creating a new commit for the revert.

The --soft flag keeps your reverted changes in the staging area.

The HEAD~1 tells reset to go back 1 commit from your current state.

git status

On branch main

nothing to commit, working tree clean

git reset --soft HEAD~1

git status

On branch main

Changes to be committed:

  (use "git restore --staged ..." to unstage)

    modified:   README.md

    deleted:    image.png

See git reset to learn more about it.