Resolve Conflicts

Repository context. Gather first

Collect these with individual Bash calls, one command per call, never combined into a single invocation:

• Operation state. git status | head -4 (that is where the in-progress merge/rebase/cherry-pick banner sits)
• Conflicted paths, git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U
• Current branch, git branch --show-current

The pipe is the bound and belongs in the command. A read-time cap ("read only the first 4 lines") bounds nothing: the Bash tool returns the command's complete output into context before there is anything to decide about. Treat a failure (not a repository, git unavailable) as an unknown value and carry on. Keep these as separate body calls rather than pre-compute: the harness composes a pre-computed block into one shell invocation, and a worktree-isolated agent refuses a git-bearing compound command. The dated record for that composition claim is the worktree skill's reference/gather-block.md, "The pre-compute block runs as one shell invocation".

Purpose

Owns HOW conflicts get resolved once an integration — merge, rebase, or cherry-pick — stops on unmerged paths. Which integration to run (merge vs rebase, when to sync with the default branch) is the caller's decision: /source-control:pull-request's branch-freshness steps, the project's convention, or the user. This skill picks up at the moment git says CONFLICT and ends when the operation is concluded with every gate green.

The two non-negotiable disciplines:

1. Intent before edits. No hunk is resolved until the commits that produced BOTH sides of it have been read and each side's intent can be stated in one sentence. Mechanically keeping "ours" or "theirs" using git checkout --ours/--theirs or -X ours/theirs, or accepting one side because it looks newer or bigger, is not resolution; it is silent deletion of someone's change.
2. --abort is not a resolution strategy. A conflict is work, not an error. Abort only when the user explicitly decides to abandon the integration itself, never as an exit from a resolution that got hard, and never silently.

Task

1. Map the stop. Identify the operation and enumerate the complete conflict inventory up front:

   • Operation type: read the git status header (merge / rebase / cherry-pick / revert in progress). The counterpart ref is MERGE_HEAD, REBASE_HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, or REVERT_HEAD respectively.
   • Full unmerged list: git status plus git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U. Every path on this list must appear in the final resolution table, no path gets resolved "in passing" without a recorded justification.
   • Sides orientation: during a merge, ours = your branch (HEAD), theirs = the branch being merged in. During a rebase the labels invert, ours = the upstream you are rebasing onto, theirs = your own commit being replayed. Fix this orientation in mind before reading any hunk; misreading it is how the wrong side gets kept.

2. Recover both intents. For each conflicted path, before editing anything:

   • Use the operation-specific row below. Do not assume every stop has MERGE_HEAD, and do not use one generic history command as a substitute for identifying the operation first. In every row, replace <path> with the conflicted path and read the full patch after the summary.

     Operation	Current-side history	Incoming/replayed intent
     Merge	BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD MERGE_HEAD) then git log --oneline "$BASE"..HEAD -- <path>	git log -p "$BASE"..MERGE_HEAD -- <path>, the incoming branch can carry multiple commits touching <path>; git show MERGE_HEAD -- <path> alone only shows the tip commit and is silently empty when an earlier commit on the branch (not the tip) touched the path
     Rebase	BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD REBASE_HEAD) then git log --oneline "$BASE"..HEAD -- <path>	git show --stat --oneline REBASE_HEAD -- <path> then git show REBASE_HEAD -- <path>, this exact commit is the patch being replayed
     Cherry-pick	BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD CHERRY_PICK_HEAD) then git log --oneline "$BASE"..HEAD -- <path>	git show --stat --oneline CHERRY_PICK_HEAD -- <path> then git show CHERRY_PICK_HEAD -- <path>, this exact commit is being picked
     Revert	BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD REVERT_HEAD) then git log --oneline "$BASE"..HEAD -- <path>	git show --stat --oneline REVERT_HEAD -- <path> then git show REVERT_HEAD -- <path>, recover the original change whose inverse is being applied

     If git merge-base returns no commit, do not interpolate an empty BASE into a range. Inspect the exact operation ref plus git log --all --oneline -- <path>, and stop to ask if the history relationship still cannot be stated. Git documents MERGE_HEAD, REBASE_HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, and REVERT_HEAD as distinct pseudorefs. Current Git also documents git log --merge as selecting the first present operation ref, but keeping the refs explicit makes the operation and orientation reviewable instead of hiding which counterpart supplied the history.

   • Read the commit messages; when gh is available and the commits came through PRs, pull the PR title/body and any linked issue, the WHY often lives there, not in the diff.

   • When the inline markers lack base context, re-materialize the file with it: git checkout --merge --conflict=zdiff3 -- <path> (or read the base directly via git show :1:<path>).

   • Write down, per side, one sentence of intent. If you cannot state a side's intent, you have not read enough history to resolve the hunk.

3. Resolve each hunk. Compose by default. Both sides changed this region on purpose; the correct resolution usually keeps both purposes:

   • Compose when the changes are independent or complementary (one side renamed, the other extended; one fixed a bug, the other added an option): produce the version that carries both.
   • Drop a side only with evidence, it was superseded by the other side's later work, explicitly reverted, or a duplicate of what the other side already does. Dropping a side is a decision that gets recorded with its evidence, never a default.
   • Genuinely incompatible intents (both sides redefined the same behavior differently): keep the side that matches the integration's stated goal, and surface the trade-off, the losing side's intent is reported, not buried.
   • Never invent behavior neither side had. The resolution space is bounded by what the two sides wrote; new design happens after the integration, as its own change.

4. Semantic-conflict sweep. Marker-free is not conflict-free. The merge machinery only flags textual overlap; it happily auto-merges a rename on one side against a new call site of the old name on the other, a signature change against a new caller, or a deleted helper against fresh usage. After the last marker is gone:

   • Grep the whole tree for symbols that either side renamed, re-signatured, moved, or deleted, including files git auto-merged without conflict.
   • Run the project's gates in its own order, typecheck/build, then tests, then lint/format (via your build/test skills when installed, the project's documented commands otherwise). Fix what the integration broke. Not declaring done before these pass is the point of this step.

5. Verify and conclude.

   • Present the resolution table: every path from step 1's inventory, one line each, resolution taken (composed / kept-ours-with-evidence / kept-theirs-with-evidence) and why.
   • Confirm gates are green, stage the resolved paths (surgically, per /source-control:commit's staging discipline, never git add -A), and conclude with the operation's own continuation: git merge --continue, git rebase --continue (repeating steps 1–5 at each subsequent stop until the rebase completes), git cherry-pick --continue, or git revert --continue. The concluding commit message is machine-prepared by git, which is why this concludes via --continue rather than composing /source-control:commit.

Never abort, and what to do instead

When resolution stalls (intent unrecoverable from history, both sides' authors unavailable, incompatibility with no stated integration goal), the fallback is to stop and ask the user with the evidence gathered so far, the intent table, the incompatible hunks, the candidate resolutions. git merge --abort / git rebase --abort throws away every hunk already resolved and leaves the branch exactly as stale as before; it converts work into a status report. If the user chooses to abandon the integration, abort is then their decision to execute or approve. Report it as abandoned, never as resolved.

Adapting to your environment (graceful degrade)

Everything runs on plain git. Adjacent capabilities are optional: gh enriches intent archaeology with PR/issue context (skipped with a note when unavailable); build/test/lint gates use your verification skills when installed, or the project's documented commands inline. The consuming project's CLAUDE.md and rules win on integration convention (merge vs rebase, conflict style), this skill reads them, never overrides them.

Next

/source-control:pull-request. Its precondition is a concluded operation with green gates.

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not choose merge vs rebase, that call belongs to the caller (/source-control:pull-request branch-freshness, project convention, or the user); this skill resolves whatever operation is already in progress.
• Does not push or touch the PR lifecycle, /source-control:pull-request owns that.
• Does not make ordinary commits, /source-control:commit owns the commit mechanic; this skill only continues an in-flight operation.
• Does not bulk-resolve, no git checkout --ours/--theirs <dir>, no rerere-driven auto-replay without review, no -X ours/theirs strategy options.
• Does not bypass hooks or gates, a hook or test failing after resolution is part of the conflict, not an obstacle to route around.