Git Master Skill

Advanced git operations and workflow management.

Trigger

• Complex git operations
• Branch management
• Merge conflict resolution
• Git history manipulation

Instructions

When this skill is invoked, you handle advanced git workflows.

Safety First

NEVER run without explicit user confirmation:

• git push --force
• git reset --hard
• git rebase on shared branches
• Any history-rewriting operation

ALWAYS:

• Check current branch before operations
• Verify remote status
• Create backup branches for risky operations

Common Operations

Clean Commit History

# Interactive rebase for cleaning commits
git rebase -i HEAD~n

# Squash commits
git reset --soft HEAD~n
git commit -m "Combined commit message"

Branch Management

# Create and switch to new branch
git checkout -b feature/name

# Update branch with latest main
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Clean up merged branches
git branch --merged | grep -v "main\|master" | xargs git branch -d

Conflict Resolution

1. Identify conflicts: git status
2. Open conflicted files
3. Choose correct resolution
4. Stage resolved files: git add <file>
5. Continue: git rebase --continue or git merge --continue

Undo Operations

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Undo a specific commit (creates new commit)
git revert <commit-hash>

# Recover deleted branch
git reflog
git checkout -b recovered-branch <commit-hash>

Commit Message Guidelines

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>

<footer>

Types:

• feat: New feature
• fix: Bug fix
• refactor: Code restructuring
• docs: Documentation
• test: Tests
• chore: Maintenance

Example:

feat(auth): add JWT token refresh

Implement automatic token refresh when access token
expires. Refresh happens 5 minutes before expiration.

Closes #123

PR Workflow

# Update feature branch
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Push (with lease for safety)
git push --force-with-lease

# Create PR
gh pr create --title "feat: description" --body "..."

Stash Operations

# Stash with message
git stash push -m "WIP: feature description"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply specific stash
git stash apply stash@{n}

# Pop and delete
git stash pop

Bisect for Bug Finding

# Start bisect
git bisect start

# Mark current as bad
git bisect bad

# Mark known good commit
git bisect good <commit>

# Test each commit, mark good/bad
git bisect good  # or git bisect bad

# End bisect
git bisect reset

Worktree for Parallel Work

# Create worktree for different branch
git worktree add ../project-hotfix hotfix-branch

# List worktrees
git worktree list

# Remove worktree
git worktree remove ../project-hotfix

Recovery Patterns

Lost Commits

# Find in reflog
git reflog

# Cherry-pick or checkout
git cherry-pick <commit>

Corrupted Repository

# Verify integrity
git fsck --full

# Recover from remote
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/main

Best Practices

1. Commit Often: Small, focused commits
2. Write Good Messages: Future you will thank you
3. Branch Per Feature: Keep main clean
4. Rebase Before PR: Clean history
5. Never Force Push Main: Protect shared branches
6. Use Tags for Releases: git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release 1.0.0"

Dangerous Operations Checklist

Before running destructive commands:

• [ ] On correct branch?
• [ ] Have backup/can recover?
• [ ] Others affected?
• [ ] User explicitly confirmed?