Merge 3 Way Split

merge-3-way-split — pre-merge 3-way diff review

Target: "$ARGUMENTS"

Read-only analysis of an upcoming merge. Inform the integrator about what's coming in -- per-file, side by side -- BEFORE git merge runs.

Use when: you're about to merge a non-trivial branch (parallel work, multiple authors, multiple days/weeks of changes) and want to understand the full scope of incoming changes before letting git's default 3-way merge mutate files.

If no target is given, default to main.

Steps

1. Identify branches and base

• Current branch: git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
• Target branch (from $ARGUMENTS or default main)
• Merge base: git merge-base HEAD <target>
• Quick stats: how many commits each side has since the base (git rev-list --count <base>..HEAD and <base>..<target>)
• Summary line: "Merging N commits from into M commits on diverged at ."

2. Classify file sets

Compute three sets relative to the merge base:

• only-ours: files modified on HEAD but untouched on target (git diff --name-only <base>..HEAD MINUS git diff --name-only <base>..<target>)
• only-theirs: files modified on target but untouched on HEAD (the complement)
• dual-touched: files modified on both sides (intersection of the two diff lists)

Report counts. Highlight that only-ours / only-theirs will auto-merge trivially -- dual-touched is where attention is needed.

3. Per-file 3-way view (dual-touched only)

For each file in the dual-touched set, emit a compact block:

=== <file> ===
[size: OURS +X / -Y lines, THEIRS +A / -B lines]

OURS  (HEAD vs base):
<git diff <base>..HEAD -- <file> output>

THEIRS  (target vs base):
<git diff <base>..<target> -- <file> output>

Truncate per-file diffs to ~80 lines each if they're huge; mention how to see the full diff (git diff <base>..HEAD -- <file> etc).

Order files by "interesting-ness": smallest first if the file is config / version (likely trivial), largest last (likely complex).

4. Flag likely-collision patterns

After the per-file diffs, surface a "Watch list" of patterns that auto-merge handles wrong even when hunks don't overlap:

• Function signature changes on one side + still-extant calls on the other (grep both diffs for def <name> adds/removes, then grep the other side for <name>()
• Removed imports on one side, still-referenced on the other
• Renamed identifiers on one side, original-name uses on the other
• New control-flow branch (if/elif/return early) on one side + the other side's logic below the new branch
• Helper added on both sides with similar purpose (potential duplication)

Be concrete: name the file, line area, and what the integrator should look at. False positives are fine -- a quick re-check is cheap, missing a real collision is expensive.

5. Recommend next steps

Print a short "What to do now":

• If dual-touched is empty: "Safe to git merge <target> -- only trivial auto-merges expected."
• If dual-touched has a few clean cases: "Run git merge <target>; expect conflict markers in , . Use git's normal resolution flow."
• If the watch list flagged anything: "Read the flagged sections before merging; auto-merge may produce code that parses but is semantically wrong. Consider drafting the resolution in your head per-file before running git merge."

6. Stop

This skill does NOT run git merge. It only informs. The integrator runs git merge <target> separately, then resolves conflicts using git's standard tooling (with full context from this review).

Output style

• Compact. Per-file blocks should be a quick scan, not a wall of text.
• Use the === filename === separator so it's grep-able.
• For very large dual-touched sets (10+ files), summarize after the first 5 and offer to dump the rest on request.
• Read-only. Do not modify files, do not call git merge, do not stage anything.

Why this exists

Git's default 3-way merge silently accepts non-overlapping hunks from both sides. That can hide semantic conflicts -- a function rename plus a still-extant call site, a new control-flow branch the other side's logic bypasses, a helper added on both sides with similar purpose. Catching these requires reading both sides' intent BEFORE auto-merge runs, not after.

The previous attempt at this (a .gitattributes + merge.<name>.driver "false" config that forced every dual-touched file to surface as a conflict) was painful in practice -- when the driver fires, git leaves HEAD's version verbatim with no 3-way view, so the integrator has to re-derive what git would have given for free.

This skill is the read-only, information-first alternative. Run it, read the output, then let git do the merge.