Git Workflow

Git Workflow

Purpose

Handle ordinary local Git work with enough evidence to preserve uncommitted work, branch reachability, and worktree ownership. This workflow does not own GitHub settings or protected-main releases.

Workflow

1. Read the closest AGENTS.md; inspect git status --short --branch, git worktree list, and the relevant history/diff before a mutation.
2. Inspect the effective Git configuration before an operation depends on fetch, pull, or tracking-branch behavior. On Gale-managed machines, expect fetch.prune=true, pull.ff=only, and branch.autoSetupRebase=always; report any local or worktree override rather than silently changing it. See references/gale-git-baseline.md.
3. Classify the operation:
   • inspection: status, diff, log, blame, or reachability;
   • focused change: create/switch a branch, stage intentional files, commit;
   • integration: fetch, compare, rebase or merge, resolve conflicts;
   • recovery: reflog, lost commit investigation, or safe restoration plan.
4. Preserve the current work before an operation that rewrites, discards, or moves it. Explain the exact target and recovery path before using reset, clean, rebase, force push, or branch/worktree deletion.
5. For branch work, use a feature branch and separate worktree when required by repository guidance. Never keep the same branch live in two worktrees except as a short recovery step.
6. Make focused commits with the repository's required subject format. Review staged changes and commit reachability after each shared Git mutation.
7. For integration, fetch first. The normal Gale baseline prunes stale refs and refuses pull-created merge commits; newly tracking branches rebase on pull. Choose a merge or rebase only when repository policy and the branch's publication state justify it. Resolve each conflict from source intent, run proportionate validation, and inspect the resulting diff.
8. Before deleting a branch, worktree, ref, or archive, verify reachability and complete any repository-required branch accounting.

Boundaries

• Route GitHub pull requests, reviews, issues, and CI collaboration to github-collaboration-workflow.
• Route tags, publishing, GitHub releases, and protected-main release cleanup to maintain-project-repo.
• Route GitHub settings, rulesets, and security configuration to maintain-github-repository.
• Push, force push, merge, tag, and destructive recovery actions require clear user authority or an existing repository-owned release contract.
• Do not encode Gale's machine-level Git baseline as repository-local config in a generated template or existing repository.

Hermes Notes

This is portable guidance. Verify that git is installed, the target is a Git worktree, and the active identity/remotes are the intended ones. Hermes gains no Git credentials or mutation authority from this skill.