Breaking up Big Merge Requests

Let's say you've made a bunch of code changes and it overwhelms your less experienced developers. Here’s a step-by-step Visual Studio workflow with screenshots for moving uncommitted changes to another branch and staging only what you need:

? Step 1: Open Git Changes Window

• In Visual Studio, go to View ? Git Changes.
• You’ll see all your modified files listed under Changes.
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? Step 2: Stash Your Changes

• In the Git Changes window:
  • Click the ellipsis (…) menu in the top-right.
  • Select Stash ? Stash All.
  • Give the stash a name (optional).
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  • This saves your work and clears your working directory.
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  ? Step 3: Switch to Target Branch

  • Go to Git Repository Window (or Team Explorer ? Branches).
  • Double-click the branch you want to move changes to.
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  ? Step 4: Apply the Stash

  • Back in Git Changes, click the ellipsis (…) menu again.
  • Select Stashes.
  • Find your stash and click Apply.
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  ? Step 5: Stage Only What You Want

  • In Git Changes, click on a file to open the diff view.
  • Hover over the left margin of the diff and click the + icon to stage individual lines or hunks.
  • This is Visual Studio’s partial staging feature.
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  ? Step 6: Commit

  • Once you’ve staged the desired changes, click Commit Staged.
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