At its core, Git records snapshots of state, not just file diffs. Every commit represents a complete, immutable view of the project at a point in time, identified by a cryptographic hash. This makes history reliable, auditable, and cheap to branch.

Git is distributed by design. Every clone contains the full repository history, which allows developers and automation systems to work offline, create branches freely, and synchronize changes without relying on a central server for every operation.

In modern cloud-native workflows, Git acts as the source of truth. Desired state is declared in Git, reviewed through pull requests, and promoted across environments by merging changes rather than applying ad-hoc commands. This is the foundation of GitOps.

Git does not deploy anything by itself. Its role is to capture intent, history, and collaboration, while other tools turn that intent into running systems.