If the GitHub repo has seen new commits pushed to it, while you were working locally, I would advice for: git pull --rebase git push The full syntax is: git pull --rebase origin master git push origin master That way, you would replay (the –rebase part) your local commits on top of the newly updated origin/master (or origin/yourBranch: git pull origin yourBranch). See a more complete example in the chapter 6 Pull with rebase of the Git Pocket Book.