rebase-assistant_skill

Overview

This skill guides a safe git rebase of the current branch onto a chosen target branch, with conflict triage and step-by-step resolution instructions. It focuses on preflight checks, clear candidate commands, and non-destructive conflict handling to protect work and history.

How this skill works

The assistant confirms the target branch and preferred conflict bias, runs preflight checks (clean status, fetch, optional backup branch) and provides the exact rebase command to run. If conflicts appear, it lists conflicted files, groups them by conflict type, and gives per-file resolution guidance including commands to inspect base/ours/theirs, safe checkout choices, staging, and how to continue the rebase. It finishes with verification and suggested quick tests.

When to use it

• You need to rebase the current feature branch onto the default or a specific target branch.
• You want guided conflict resolution during an in-progress rebase.
• You need help deciding keep-ours vs keep-theirs for ambiguous conflicts.
• You want to create a safety backup branch before rebasing.
• You prefer stepwise, non-destructive commands and explicit confirmation before destructive actions.

Best practices

• Ensure working tree is clean before starting (git status -sb).
• Fetch remotes first (git fetch --prune) and confirm the correct target branch.
• Ask to create a local backup branch (git branch backup/<current-branch>) before rebasing.
• Avoid automatic destructive commands; show them and request explicit permission if needed.
• Classify conflicts (content, delete/modify, rename, binary) and apply file-level decisions.

Example use cases

• Rebase a feature branch onto origin/main while preserving local changes.
• Triage multiple conflicted files after running git rebase origin/main.
• Choose a consistent bias (keep ours/theirs) for bulk-file conflicts like generated assets.
• Resolve a binary-file conflict by explicitly choosing ours or theirs.
• Create a backup branch, rebase interactively, and run a quick build to verify.