Branch and worktree workflow

Starting

Work that will take more than one sitting, or that runs alongside other work, gets its own isolated workspace. A worktree gives you a second checkout of the same repository on a different branch — two efforts, two directories, one object store, no stashing.

Branch from the current upstream default, not from whatever is checked out. Branching off a stale local branch is how unrelated commits end up in a review.

While working

• Commit at points where the tree is coherent, not at the end of the day.
• Keep the branch current with its base often. A merge conflict found on day one is a five-minute fix; the same conflict found on day ten is an afternoon.
• One concern per branch. If you find an unrelated bug, note it and leave it.

Finishing

Before proposing the work:

1. Rerun the full check the project actually gates on, not the subset you have been running.
2. Read your own diff top to bottom. Remove debug output, stray files, and commented-out code.
3. Confirm the branch merges cleanly into its base.

Then decide how it integrates:

• Small and coherent — merge as is.
• Several separable concerns — split into stacked branches so each can be reviewed on its merits. A reviewer given three concerns in one diff reviews none of them well.
• Exploratory — keep the useful commits, drop the rest.

Sources

references/sources.md in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.

Never

• Rewrite history on a branch someone else has checked out. Merge instead; a force-push breaks their working copy.
• Leave a worktree behind after merging — stale worktrees hold references and confuse later work.
• Merge your own change without the checks green on the final commit, not an earlier one.