Try git checkout -b wip-syncing git commit -m "wip means work in progress" git push <whatevs> wip-syncing on your laptop, then git fetch --al

Try git checkout -b wip-syncing git commit -m "wip means work in progress" git push <whatevs> wip-syncing on your laptop, then git fetch --all git checkout <whatevs>/wip-syncing -- . git push <whatevs> :wip-syncing on the desktop. of course, this "rewrites history", but only in a very localized way. In general, you're going to be fighting against git if you take an absolutist stance against rewriting history. Which is fine! But a little bit of controlled rewriting can open up a lot of options. Edit: and I'm typing this from memory on my phone so please don't copy and paste the commands without verifying that they work correctly first!