When you want to detach

You forked a repo, pushed your work, and now want to publish independently. Or your team is migrating to a new Git host. Or you cloned a vendor's repo and want to make it your own. In all these cases, you need to detach the local repo from its origin.

Listing remotes

git remote -v
# origin   [email protected]:upstream/project.git (fetch)
# origin   [email protected]:upstream/project.git (push)

Removing a remote

git remote remove origin
git remote -v       # confirm gone

This deletes the remote name and its tracking refs. Local commits are unaffected. Remote branches under refs/remotes/origin/ are removed.

Adding a new origin

git remote add origin [email protected]:yourname/project.git
git push -u origin --all
git push -u origin --tags

The repo now points at your fork; pushes go there.

Renaming instead

Sometimes detachment is partial - keep the old remote, add a new one:

git remote rename origin upstream
git remote add origin [email protected]:yourname/project.git
git fetch --all
git remote -v

This is the standard fork setup: origin is your fork, upstream is the source.

Updating a remote URL without removing

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:team/project.git
git remote set-url --push origin [email protected]:team/project.git

Useful when migrating to a new host - same remote name, new URL.

Removing tracking refs after detachment

If refs/remotes/origin/... linger after a remove (rare):

git for-each-ref refs/remotes/origin --format='%(refname)' | \
  xargs -n 1 git update-ref -d

Detaching from upstream entirely

For a "clean break" - new repo, no shared history visible to consumers:

# Option 1: keep history but rewrite the parent
git checkout --orphan new-main
git add -A
git commit -m "Initial commit (rebased history)"

# Option 2: keep history, just publish to a new remote
git remote remove origin
git remote add origin <new-url>
git push -u origin --all

Pushing to multiple remotes

Sometimes you do not want to detach - you want to mirror. Configure multiple push URLs:

git remote set-url --add --push origin [email protected]:user/repo.git
git remote set-url --add --push origin [email protected]:user/repo.git
git push origin main         # pushes to both

Checking after the fact

git config --get-regexp '^remote\\.'
git remote show origin

remote show connects to the remote and reports tracking branches, push refs, and stale refs - useful for verifying configuration.

Common pitfalls

• Forgetting to push tags to the new remote.
• Not updating CI configuration that hard-codes the old URL.
• Submodules pointing at the old remote - update .gitmodules too.

Detachment is mechanical. The hard work is coordinating with the team and tooling, not running the commands.