Squash Branch

Squash Branch Skill

Squash all commits on a feature branch into a single commit by generating a patch, recreating the branch from the base, and applying the patch.

Parameters

The user should provide:

• feature_branch: The branch to squash (e.g., jose/vectors, feature/my-feature)
• base_branch: The branch to squash against (e.g., mainline, main, master)
• commit_message (optional): If not provided, prompt the user for a commit message

Instructions

1. Verify current state: Ensure the working directory is clean and you're on the feature branch

   git status
   git branch --show-current
   

2. Generate the patch: Create a diff between the base branch and feature branch

   git diff <base_branch>...<feature_branch> > /tmp/squash-branch.patch
   

3. Switch to base branch and delete feature branch:

   git checkout <base_branch>
   git branch -D <feature_branch>
   

4. Recreate feature branch from base and apply patch:

   git checkout -b <feature_branch>
   git apply /tmp/squash-branch.patch
   

5. Prompt for commit message: If no commit message was provided, use AskUserQuestion to ask the user what commit message they want

6. Stage and commit:

   git add -A
   git commit -m "<commit_message>
   
   Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>"
   

7. Show final result: Display the new clean commit history

   git log --oneline <base_branch>..<feature_branch>
   git diff --stat <base_branch>...<feature_branch>
   

Example Usage

User: "Squash my feature/auth branch against main with message 'Add user authentication'"

User: "Clean up the commit history of jose/vectors against mainline"

User: "/squash-branch feature_branch=dev/new-feature base_branch=main"

Important Notes

• This operation is destructive to the local branch history - make sure changes are not pushed and nothing other than the feature branch is modified
• Always verify the patch was created successfully before deleting the branch
• If the patch application fails, the original branch is already deleted - warn the user about this risk
• The patch file is stored in /tmp and will be cleaned up by the system