Recover from Stale Git Locks
When git operations fail with .git/index.lock errors, the lock file may persist after a crash. Check if any git process is actually running with ps aux | grep git. If none exist, safely remove the stale lock file with rm .git/index.lock, then retry the operation. For submodules or nested repos, check and clean locks in each .git directory. Always verify the background process completed before proceeding.