Troubleshooting — Stage 5: Experiment on the Branch

Common Errors

The dark theme appeared on main instead of dark-theme

Cause: You edited and committed while standing on the wrong branch. Easy mistake — always check git branch before committing.

Fix: Hardest fix of this tutorial, but still short. On main:

git reset --hard HEAD~1   # removes the wrong commit from main

Then switch and redo:

git checkout dark-theme

Edit style.css, commit. Before committing, double-check git branch.

git commit says "nothing to commit"

Cause: You did not save your file after editing, or you edited a different file than style.css.

Fix: Save the file in your editor, run git status to confirm style.css is listed under changes, then git add style.css and commit again.

Switching back to main shows the dark theme

Cause: Either you did not commit on dark-theme first (so the change is "floating" and follows you), or you accidentally committed on main.

Fix: Run git log --oneline on each branch. main should have three commits, dark-theme four. If not, see the first error above.

The teal color looks off

Cause: Hex colors are strict: #00ffcc is six characters after the #, and zero is the digit, not the letter O.

Fix: Copy the color directly from steps.md. No typing.

FAQ

Why does rewriting the whole file feel different from adding a few rules?

Because this is an experiment. A dark theme is a theme change, not a layering on top of the light theme. Rewriting makes the intent clear and the diff readable.

Can I keep both themes at the same time?

Not in one file without extra tools. You could add a second CSS file, or use CSS classes on the body. Those are both valid approaches and would make a good follow-up project — but they are beyond this Git-focused tutorial.

Is it okay to commit many small experiments on a branch?

Yes. Branches are cheap. Commit often, try wild things, and throw away the whole branch (git branch -D dark-theme) if you hate the result. You lose nothing on main.