/resolve-conflicts

Interactive conflict resolution for HQ Sync. When two machines (or two users) edit the same file and sync detects divergence, both versions land on disk: the original path keeps the local version, and a .conflict-<timestamp>-<machine>.<ext> file holds the cloud's version. This command walks the user through each pending conflict and applies their decision.

Note on auto-merge: the @indigoai-us/hq-cloud sync-runner may now auto-merge clean, non-overlapping text-file conflicts on the pull path when a baseline is available — those pull conflicts never reach this index or this skill. What still lands here includes: pull conflicts the runner could not safely auto-merge (overlapping edits, binary/oversized files, safety-only conflicts, or divergence with no baseline), and push-side conflicts (never auto-merged; with default --direction both / --on-conflict keep, the cloud version is mirrored to a sidecar). Resolution here therefore stays two-way (local vs. cloud) for whatever lands in the queue; this skill does not implement or duplicate any three-way merge logic itself.

What you do

Step 1 — Locate and read the index

Read ~/HQ/.hq-conflicts/index.json. The exact HQ folder path comes from ~/.hq/menubar.json hqPath (and falls back per the resolve-hq-folder discovery chain). If the file doesn't exist OR the conflicts array is empty, tell the user "No conflicts pending — your local copy is in sync with the cloud" and stop.

The index schema:

{
  "version": 1,
  "conflicts": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "originalPath": "core/knowledge/notes.md",
      "conflictPath": "core/knowledge/notes.md.conflict-2026-04-27T22-05-14Z-abc123.md",
      "detectedAt": "2026-04-27T22:05:14Z",
      "side": "pull" | "push",
      "machineId": "abc123",
      "localHash": "...",
      "remoteHash": "...",
      "remoteVersionId": "...",
      "lastKnownVersionId": "..."
    }
  ]
}

Step 2 — Summarize the queue

Tell the user how many conflicts are pending, grouped by top-level folder. Example:

3 conflicts pending:
  core/knowledge/  (2 files)
  personal/projects/foo/  (1 file)

Walking through them oldest-first.

Step 3 — Walk each conflict (oldest detectedAt first)

For each entry:

1. Read both files (Read on originalPath and conflictPath, both relative to HQ folder).

2. Show the user a short preview: file path, sizes of both versions, and a unified diff (use Bash with diff -u <local> <cloud> if both are reasonable size, otherwise just first 30 lines of each).

3. Ask: which version to keep?

   • l / local — keep the local copy at originalPath. Delete the conflict file. (Cloud's version is discarded — it's still in S3 versioning history if recovery is ever needed.)
   • c / cloud — overwrite local with the cloud copy. Use Bash mv <conflictPath> <originalPath> to atomically replace.
   • m / merge — open both files for the user to manually merge. Use Bash code -d <local> <cloud> (VS Code diff) or fall back to open <local> <cloud>. Wait for the user to confirm they're done with the merge, then ask again (or accept that they've manually resolved → delete the conflict file).
   • s / skip — leave both files in place, move to next conflict. Index entry stays.
   • q / quit — stop walking, exit.

4. After applying the resolution (except skip/quit/merge-pending), remove the index entry. Re-write ~/HQ/.hq-conflicts/index.json atomically (write to .tmp, then rename).

Step 4 — Final summary

Tell the user how many conflicts were resolved this session, how many were skipped, and what's left:

Resolved 2 conflicts (1 kept local, 1 took cloud).
1 conflict skipped — run `/resolve-conflicts` again to revisit.

If there are still pending conflicts, suggest the user re-run sync afterwards so the resolved files propagate to the cloud cleanly.

Edge cases

• conflictPath doesn't exist on disk but is in the index: the file was probably already deleted/resolved manually. Remove the index entry and continue.
• originalPath doesn't exist: the user deleted the local file. Treat the conflict file as the only remaining copy — ask "the original file is gone; keep the cloud version (move to original) or discard?"
• Index file is corrupt JSON: tell the user, don't attempt repair. Suggest checking ~/HQ/.hq-conflicts/index.json manually or restoring from a backup.
• Binary files (image, PDF): don't attempt diff. Just show file sizes + offer to open both in their default app via open.
• No editor available for merge: fall back to open (default app) for both files.

Don't

• Don't try to do 3-way/diff3 merges yourself — that logic lives in the sync-runner (@indigoai-us/hq-cloud) on the pull path, and is out of scope for this skill. Just show the two versions that made it into the queue and let the user pick.
• Don't propagate or upload conflict files. They're local-only by design (.hqignore blocks them).
• Don't touch the journal directly — let the next sync update the journal with the resolved file's new hash.
• Don't skip the atomic write of the index. Always tmp-then-rename so a crash doesn't leave a corrupt index.

After resolution

After the user has resolved conflicts, suggest they hit Sync in the HQ Desktop App. The runner will pick up the resolved file (now with a new local hash that differs from journal) and push it cleanly. If a new conflict happens in the meantime (someone else pushed again), they'll see a new entry in the index.

See also

• /hq-sync — re-run sync after resolving
• /hq-heal — broader session repair