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description: Use when needing to fixup, squash, drop, reword, reorder, or edit commits in a branch's history. Handles the non-interactive approach agents need since git rebase -i requires a TTY.

Git Edit Commit

This skill outlines how agents can edit previous commits. Agents can't use git rebase -i directly, which requires a TTY. This skill provides helper scripts instead.

REQUIRED: Always reference commits by SHA, not by HEAD-relative notation like HEAD~3.

Inspect Commits First

Run git log --oneline to get SHAs. Output is newest-first; the rebase plan is oldest-first.

Amending the Latest Commit

To fold staged changes into the most recent commit without changing its message:

git add <files>
git commit --amend --no-edit

Fixup and Squash (Recommended Shortcut)

git commit --fixup=<target-sha>   # merge into target, discard message
git commit --squash=<target-sha>  # merge into target, combine messages

# <oldest-sha-in-scope>^ is the parent of the oldest commit in scope; use --root if it's the first commit
scripts/non-interactive-git-rebase.sh --autosquash <oldest-sha-in-scope>^

Drop, Reorder, Edit

Use scripts/non-interactive-git-rebase.sh. Supply the plan via stdin. Use --root when the oldest commit in scope is the repository's first commit.

scripts/non-interactive-git-rebase.sh <oldest-sha-in-scope>^ <<'PLAN'
pick abc1234 Keep this commit
squash def5678 Merge this into the previous
drop ghi9012 Remove this commit entirely
PLAN

Edit

Mark the commit edit in the plan. Git pauses there. Then:

git add <files>
git commit --amend --no-edit
git rebase --continue

Reword

scripts/reword-commit.sh --sha <sha> --message "New commit message"

Rationalizations

| Thought | Reality | | ------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | "I can't do interactive rebase without a TTY" | Use scripts/non-interactive-git-rebase.sh instead | | "I'll use HEAD~N as the upstream" | Use a SHA — HEAD~N is fragile and ambiguous | | "I'll just --amend instead" (for an older commit) | --amend only works on the latest commit; use rebase for others | | "I'll undo the commits and redo them one by one" | Rebase rewrites history in one step — no need to redo commits | | "I'll create a new commit to fix it" | That pollutes history; rebase is the right tool |