ryanb Rebase
Rebase the current branch onto a base branch, resolving conflicts and verifying tests along the way.
Step 0: Check for an in-progress rebase
Before anything else, check whether a rebase is already underway:
git rev-parse --git-path rebase-merge >/dev/null 2>&1 && ls "$(git rev-parse --git-path rebase-merge)" >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "rebase in progress" || (ls "$(git rev-parse --git-path rebase-apply)" >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "rebase in progress")
If a rebase is already in progress, skip Steps 1–2 entirely. Assume the task is to resolve the outstanding conflicts and continue the rebase: go straight to Step 3. Treat the base branch as the one already being rebased onto — you do not need to determine or fetch it.
Otherwise, continue to Step 1.
Step 1: Determine base branch
Determine the base branch in this order:
- Use
$ARGUMENTSif the user specifies a branch - Use the tracked parent from
git config branch.$(git branch --show-current).parent, if set and it still resolves to a commit - Use
bin/base-branchif the script exists and is executable - Ask the user which branch to rebase onto
Step 2: Start the rebase
Fetch latest and begin the rebase:
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/<base-branch>
If the rebase completes with no conflicts, skip to Step 6.
Step 3: Resolve conflicts
- Identify the conflicting files with
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U - Read each conflicting file and understand both sides of the conflict
- Resolve the conflict by taking both sides into account — don't blindly pick one side. Understand the intent of each change and produce a result that incorporates both correctly.
- Stage the resolved files with
git add
If a conflict is ambiguous and you can't confidently determine the correct resolution, ask the user.
Step 4: Run related tests
Run the tests related to the files that had conflicts. If tests fail due to the conflict resolution, fix them before proceeding.
If tests fail but seem unrelated to the rebase, verify by stashing and testing:
git stash
# run tests again
git stash pop
- If tests also fail without your changes, the failures are pre-existing. Note this for the user and continue.
- If tests only fail with your changes, the rebase introduced the problem. Investigate and fix.
If you are unable to resolve test failures, let the user know what's broken and what you tried.
Step 5: Continue the rebase
git rebase --continue
If there are more conflicts, go back to Step 3. Repeat until the rebase is complete.
Step 6: Update the tracked parent
If a tracked parent is set for this branch (git config branch.$(git branch --show-current).parent), update it so later tooling stays in sync and doesn't act on a stale parent ref:
branch=$(git branch --show-current)
git config "branch.$branch.parent" "<base-branch>"
git update-ref "refs/parent/$branch" "$(git rev-parse origin/<base-branch>^{commit})"
Skip this step if no tracked parent is set.
Step 7: Check remote and compare
Check if a remote tracking branch exists:
git rev-parse --verify @{u} 2>/dev/null
If a remote branch exists, follow the comparison procedure in ~/.claude/skills/rebase/remote-diff.md (read the file and carry out its steps) to compare the rebase result against the remote and flag any potential issues. Use the base branch you rebased onto as <base-branch>.
If no remote branch exists, skip this step and report that the rebase is complete.