Watch git remote add write two lines to .git/config with no network call, see git fetch fill .git/objects/ and refs/remotes/origin/ while your branches stay put, and read a non-fast-forward push rejection as the remote refusing to drop a teammate's commit.

You clone a coworker's repo, add their URL, and expect a live wire to their machine. Open .git/config instead: two text lines got written, and no connection was ever opened.

Search the server's .git/ after opening a PR and find no new object, push more commits to see the diff re-resolve off the live tip with no update step, then run merge, squash, and rebase to land refs/heads/main at three different hashes.

You've clicked the green Merge button and watched your branch fold into main. Now grep the whole .git/ folder for that button, the object store, the refs, the config, every command git ships, and it isn't there.

Place a file named pre-commit in .git/hooks/, chmod +x it, and watch git fork it on the next commit and abort on a non-zero exit, then clone the repo to find the hook gone and see why --no-verify skips your copy but never the server's pre-receive.

You run git commit and it just works, every time. Then one day it stops, refuses, and prints a line you wrote yourself, because a plain script sitting in .git/hooks/ returned a number git did not like.

Read a team's model off its git branch -a, route one feature through trunk-based, GitFlow, and forking so identical code lands on main three ways, then pick the shape by release cadence and contributor trust.

Two teams, two printouts of git branch -a: one is a single line, the other a dozen. Same git binary, the same objects underneath, so the difference is a shape each team chose, not a feature git turned on.