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name: smith-git description: Git workflow gotchas and non-obvious practices. Use when performing Git commits, merges, branch management, or rebasing. Covers GPG signing, atomic commits, and safety flags.

Git Workflow Gotchas

• Load if: Git commits, merges, branch management
• Prerequisites: @smith-principles/SKILL.md, @smith-standards/SKILL.md

CRITICAL (Primacy Zone)

• MUST use git mv for renames (preserves history)
• MUST GPG sign all commits: git commit -S -m "..."
• MUST keep branches linear (prefer rebase over merge) - essential for stacked PRs, see @smith-stacks/SKILL.md

• NEVER force push to main or shared branches
• NEVER commit directly to main branch
• NEVER rebase shared branches (only personal feature branches)

Branch Naming

See @smith-style/SKILL.md for naming conventions.

Commit Standards

Format: See @smith-style/SKILL.md for conventional commits.

Atomic commits: One logical change per commit, passes tests, reversible.

Non-Obvious Flags

• -u: Use on first push to set upstream tracking
• --force-with-lease: Safe force push for personal branches - required for stacked PRs after rebase, see @smith-stacks/SKILL.md
• --no-ff: Preserve merge commit for feature branches (maintains history)
• -S: GPG sign commits

Claude Code Plugin Integration

When commit-commands plugin is available:

• /commit: Auto-generates commit message, stages files, creates commit
• /clean_gone: Cleans up branches deleted from remote (including worktrees)

Manual commands still needed for:

• GPG signing (-S flag)
• Interactive rebase
• Force push with lease

Ralph Loop Commit Strategy

Atomic commits mark iteration boundaries. Include iteration number; enables git bisect for regressions.

See @smith-ralph/SKILL.md for full commit patterns.

• @smith-stacks/SKILL.md - Stacked PR workflows (uses linear history, force-with-lease)
• @smith-gh-pr/SKILL.md - PR creation, review cycles, merge strategies
• @smith-gh-cli/SKILL.md - GitHub CLI commands
• @smith-style/SKILL.md - Naming conventions, conventional commits

ACTION (Recency Zone)

First push to new branch:

Copygit push -u origin feat/my_feature

Safe force push (personal branches only):

Copygit push --force-with-lease origin feat/my_feature

Feature merge (preserve history):

Copygit merge --no-ff feat/my_feature

Interactive rebase (local commits only):

Copygit rebase -i HEAD~3