Land To Main

Land to Main

Land the current work branch onto local main. Remotes are out of scope — do not push or pull.

Preconditions (fail fast)

1. Not on main: if HEAD is main, refuse and stop.
2. Clean tree: if there are uncommitted changes (staged or unstaged), stop. Do not commit as part of landing.
3. Already landed: if work branch and main point at the same commit, report that and stop (nothing to do).

Workflow

Run these steps in order. Stop and wait for the user on any unexpected failure.

1. Inspect history

Review commits on the work branch that are not on main (git log main..HEAD).

• Normally land as-is.
• If any look like WIP / temporary / "fixup later" commits, ask before continuing. Do not squash or rewrite unless the user asks.

2. Rebase onto local main

git rebase main

• Simple conflicts (obvious one-sided or mechanical): resolve, git add, continue.
• Complex or semantic conflicts: stop, explain the conflict, wait for direction.
• Never use git rebase -i.

3. Lint and test

• Prefer the project's documented lint and test entrypoints.
• Run lint, then tests. Fail-stop on either — do not fast-forward if either fails.
• Do not run a full production build unless the project documents that as the check to use.

4. Fast-forward main

main is typically checked out in another worktree, so do not git checkout main here.

Only after lint and tests succeed:

1. Find the worktree that has main: git worktree list
2. Fast-forward that checkout to this branch tip (stay in the work-branch worktree):

git -C <main-worktree-path> merge --ff-only <work-branch-tip>

Use the work branch name or its SHA for <work-branch-tip>.

• --ff-only only — if FF is not possible, stop and ask (do not create a merge commit).
• If the main worktree has local changes, the merge should fail; abort and report — do not dirty-merge or stash there.
• If no worktree has main, you can directly git push . HEAD:main. Do not force push.
• Stay on the work branch. Do not delete any branches.

5. Verify

Confirm work branch and main are the same commit (e.g. git rev-parse HEAD vs git -C <main-worktree-path> rev-parse HEAD). Report briefly: branch name, new main tip (short SHA + subject), and that checks passed.

Hard rules

• Local main only — no remote fetch/pull/push.
• Do not commit, amend, squash, or otherwise rewrite history unless the user explicitly asks.
• Do not delete branches.
• End on the work branch, with main fast-forwarded to match.
• If unsure how to proceed: stop and wait for the user.