Restore GitHub commit history while setting new remote origin

Question

I had a git repo called chess_assess.

I downgraded my local project's Vue from v3.x to v2.x by creating a new local project called chess_assess2 and copying almost all content from chess_assess into it.
I then deleted chess_assess and renamed chess_assess2 to chess_assess.
Finally, I reset the remote using
- git remote add origin <path_to_chess_assess.git>
- git add . && git commit -m ""
- git push -u origin main

This produced the error

! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/hexaquarks/chess_assess.git'

So I did:

git push -u origin main --force

which worked, but now my GitHub repo commits history is completely gone.

Is there a way to reobtain the commit history of my project while simultaneously connecting this new project to GitHub?

Use the reflog to get the hash of the last commit in the deleted branch and recreate a branch on this commit. — Philippe, Sep 27 '21 at 22:07
@Philippe `$ git reflog` just shows the last commit I did, that is the commit that overwritten all my previous commits, nothing else. How can I use reflog in the deleted branch when the initial folder `chess_assess` is deleted? — hexaquark, Sep 27 '21 at 22:14
There is no *easy* way. GitHub have a habit of not actually deleting any commits, though—either for a long time, or perhaps even ever?—so if you contact GitHub support (you may also need to fork over some dollars, I don't know about this part) they may be able to get you your commits back. — torek, Sep 27 '21 at 23:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '21 at 06:39

How can I use reflog in the deleted branch when the initial folder chess_assess is deleted?

You cannot indeed.

If the remote repository remained the same, check its own remote reflog for GitHub, using the GitHub Event API to list push events. I mentioned those here, knowing that public events are delayed by a few minutes.

You might get the last pushed commit, which you can then fetch, bringing with its all its past commits.

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