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Git Smart Merge Workflow Guide

Overview​

This guide describes the safe merge workflow implemented in the Supernal Coding system for merging feature branches into main with proper validation and automation.

Quick Start​

Basic Merge Commands​

# Simple merge from current branch
sc merge

# Merge specific branch  
sc merge feature/req-043-security

# Full automation (push and cleanup)
sc merge --push --delete-local

# Interactive mode
sc merge -i

Git-Smart Integration​

# Via git-smart (same functionality)
sc git-smart merge
sc git-smart merge --branch feature/req-043-security --push --delete-local

Workflow Steps​

The safe merge process follows these automated steps:

1. Pre-Merge Validation 🔍​

  • ✅ Verify git repository status
  • ✅ Check for uncommitted changes
  • ✅ Validate branch exists and is accessible
  • ✅ Ensure not merging from main/master

2. Main Branch Update 📥​

  • Switch to main branch
  • Pull latest changes from remote
  • Handle offline scenarios gracefully

3. Rebase Operation 🔄​

  • Switch back to feature branch
  • Rebase feature branch on updated main
  • Pause for manual conflict resolution if needed
  • Provide clear guidance for conflict resolution

4. Safe Merge 🚀​

  • Switch to main branch
  • Perform merge with --no-ff flag (preserves feature branch history)
  • Maintain clean merge commit

5. Post-Merge Automation 🧹​

  • Optional: Push to remote (--push flag)
  • Optional: Delete local feature branch (--delete-local flag)
  • Automatic: Update requirement status if branch follows naming convention
  • Automatic: Backup feature branch to remote before deletion

Command Options​

Basic Options​

OptionDescriptionExample
[branch]Specific branch to mergesc merge feature/req-043-security
--pushPush to remote after mergesc merge --push
--delete-localDelete local branch after mergesc merge --delete-local
--quiet, -qMinimize outputsc merge -q
--interactive, -iInteractive promptssc merge -i

Combined Usage​

# Complete automation
sc merge feature/req-043-security --push --delete-local

# Interactive safety check
sc merge -i

# Quiet merge with cleanup
sc merge --quiet --delete-local

Safety Features​

Conflict Detection & Resolution​

When conflicts are detected during rebase:

🚨 MERGE CONFLICTS DETECTED
   Please resolve conflicts manually:
   1. Edit conflicted files
   2. git add <resolved-files>
   3. git rebase --continue
   4. Re-run merge command when rebase is complete

   To abort rebase: git rebase --abort

Error Recovery​

If merge fails, the system provides recovery options:

❌ MERGE FAILED
   Error: <specific error message>

🔧 Recovery options:
   - Fix issues and retry merge
   - git checkout main && git reset --hard HEAD~1 (if merge was completed but failed post-processing)
   - git rebase --abort (if stuck in rebase)

Requirement Integration​

For branches following the feature/req-XXX-* pattern:

  • Automatically extracts requirement ID
  • Updates requirement status to "implemented" after successful merge
  • Links merge completion to requirement tracking

Best Practices​

Before Merging​

  1. Test thoroughly - Ensure all tests pass
  2. Review changes - Use git log or git diff main to review
  3. Update documentation - Include any necessary docs
  4. Validate requirement - Run sc req validate XXX if applicable

Branch Naming Convention​

Follow the standard pattern for automatic requirement tracking:

feature/req-043-description-of-work
hotfix/critical-issue-description  
docs/update-description

Automation Strategy​

Conservative Approach (Manual control):

sc merge                    # Basic merge only
# Then manually: git push origin main

Balanced Approach (Backup but keep local):

sc merge --push            # Merge and push, keep local branch

Full Automation (Complete cleanup):

sc merge --push --delete-local    # Full automation

Integration with Development Workflow​

With Requirements System​

# Complete requirement workflow
sc req start-work 043
# ... development work ...
sc req validate 043
sc merge --push --delete-local
# Requirement automatically marked as implemented

With Git-Smart​

# Check status before merging
sc git-smart status

# Perform merge
sc git-smart merge --push --delete-local

# Verify post-merge status
sc git-smart status

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

Issue: "Cannot merge from main/master branch"

# Solution: Switch to feature branch first
git checkout feature/req-043-security
sc merge

Issue: "Uncommitted changes detected"

# Solution: Commit or stash changes
git add .
git commit -m "WIP: Save current progress"
sc merge

Issue: "Feature branch does not exist"

# Solution: Check branch name
git branch -a
sc merge correct-branch-name

Recovery Commands​

Undo last merge (if not pushed):

git checkout main
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Abort rebase (if stuck in conflict resolution):

git rebase --abort

Check merge status:

sc git-smart status

Advanced Usage​

Custom Merge Scripts​

The merge system integrates with existing git hooks and can be extended with custom validation:

# Pre-merge custom validation
sc validate --requirements    # Validate all requirements
sc git-smart check-branch     # Validate branch compliance

Batch Operations​

For multiple feature branches:

# Merge multiple features (manual approach)
for branch in feature/req-043-security feature/req-044-performance; do
  sc merge $branch --push
done

Last Updated: 2025-01-21
Related Requirements: REQ-043 (Security), Git workflow improvements