Finishing a Development Branch

The Process

Step 1: Verify Tests

If a caller (impag Step 4c/Step 7, subagent-driven-development Step 7, executing-plans Step 5) already ran the full suite green this turn, skip and report Tests: <X> passed (caller-run). Re-running is a duplicate.

Otherwise run the project's test suite (pytest tests/ -q, npm test, cargo test ./..., etc.).

If tests fail: Stop. Report failures concisely and do not continue. The caller resolves.

If tests pass: Continue.

Step 2: Report Branch State

Branch: <current-branch>
Commits ahead of <base>: <N> (<short-sha>..<short-sha>)
Tests: <X> passed

Step 3: Merge to main and activate it

By the end of this skill the work lands on main (the repo's default branch) and main is the active branch.

1. Merge only if not already on main. If the current branch is main (work was committed directly to it), there is nothing to migrate — report On main; nothing to merge and skip to returning control.
2. Otherwise, from the current topic branch:
   • git checkout main
   • git merge --ff-only <topic> when it fast-forwards; if it cannot, git merge --no-ff <topic> with a one-line merge message.
   • On a clean merge, delete the merged branch: git branch -d <topic> (and remove its worktree if one exists).
   • Leave main checked out.
3. Never push. Pushing stays an explicit, separate user action (host-only per the git-push policy). Report main now at <sha>, ahead of origin/main by <N>.
4. On conflict or merge failure: stop, leave the repo on the topic branch untouched, report the conflict, and let the caller/user resolve. Never force, reset, or -X your way past a conflict.

Then return control to the caller in the same turn. Do NOT print a transition sentence ("Proceeding to /retro", "continuing", "now invoking the next step") — the caller advances directly to its next step in the same response; the handoff is silent by design.

Step 4: Discard instead (only on explicit discard)

If the user says discard rather than letting the merge proceed, confirm before acting:

Discard will permanently remove:
<commit-list>
Worktree: <path or "—">

Type `discard` again to confirm.

On the second discard, run the appropriate rollback:

• Local-only commits on an integration branch: git reset --hard <base-SHA>.
• Topic branch: git checkout <base> + git branch -D <branch> + worktree removal if present.

Otherwise do nothing.