Why does git status return "Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 255 commits."?

Question

git

Battle server. The project directory is synchronized with the repository. HEAD on the last commit, everything is in normal working order.
I give the command:

$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 255 commits.
  (use "git push" to publish your local commits)
nothing to commit, working directory clean

What 255 commits are we talking about? Changes and commits are not made on the production server, all changes in the main branch are rolled through git pull.
I would do what git asks - (use "git push" to publish your local commits), but I don't really want to, because I don't understand what's going on.