The Problem With `git add .`

When I first learned I could run: git add . Instead of adding files one at a time, I felt like I had discovered some secret Git trick. No more: git add file1 git add file2 git add file3 Just stage everything and move on. And honestly, for a while, that was an upgrade. It removed friction. It made committing faster. It felt like the kind of thing that separated people who were comfortable in Git from people who were still fumbling through it. But like a lot of “smart” shortcuts, it worked best right up until real life got involved. Sometimes I had a tmp file sitting around and committed it by accident. Sometimes I had changes I liked in one file and changes I definitely did not like in another. Sometimes I forgot to switch branches before starting a new ticket and ended up with a mix of unrelated edits. And lately, with more AI-assisted coding tools in the mix, I’ve ended up with even more repo noise than I used to. Cursor in particular is great at helping me think and explore, but it a