oduffy-delphi/finishing-a-development-branch

Finishing a Development Branch

Overview

Guide completion of development work by presenting clear options and handling chosen workflow.

Core principle: Verify tests → Present options → Execute choice → Clean up.

Announce at start: "I'm using the coordinator:finishing-a-development-branch skill to complete this work."

The Process

Step 1: Verify Tests

Before presenting options, check whether test evidence already covers this branch. If this session already has fast-tier or targeted-test evidence for the current diff, report it as-is and move to Step 2 — this step is not a cadence gate that reruns tests on every branch finish.

If no such evidence exists, a scoped run beats a broad one: prefer targeted tests covering the touched files over the fast tier. Reaching for the fast tier at all means reaching for the grant first — this skill is not on the implicit-grant ceremony list (/workday-complete, /workweek-complete, /merging-to-main), so before invoking a resolved Tier F command, check (POSIX-host form below; on a PowerShell host use the .exe launcher through the call operator — Shape W, snippets/resolve-coordinator-bin.md) tier-u-grant-cli check (the same session-scoped token Tier U consumes). Exit 0 = granted, resolve and run via coordinator-resolve-validation-cmd --fast (rc 0 = resolved, run the result and capture its exit code; rc 2 = no fast_test_cmd configured — skipped, not failed). Exit 1 (ungranted) halts before invoking it: ask the PM for a session grant, run under a ceremony that already holds the implicit grant, or defer and report Validation: skipped for this invocation. Either way, a full-suite gate belongs to the merge ceremony downstream (Option 1 chains into merging-to-main, which runs its own CI-gated checks) — this step never substitutes for that gate. Interim caveat: a chained fast_test_cmd (a && b, a; b, a pipe) is denied by the invocation guard today — don't reshape the command to dodge it; configure fast_test_cmd as a single command, with multi-step logic in a wrapper script instead.

If tests fail:

Tests failing (<N> failures). Must fix before completing:

[Show failures]

Cannot proceed with merge/PR until tests pass.

Stop. Don't proceed to Step 2.

If tests pass: Continue to Step 2.

Step 2: Determine Base Branch

Try common base branches: git merge-base HEAD main, falling back to git merge-base HEAD master if that fails.

Or ask: "This branch split from main - is that correct?"

Step 3: Present Options

Present exactly these 3 options:

Implementation complete. What would you like to do?

1. Merge to main via PR (recommended)
2. Create a Pull Request (manual merge later)
3. Keep the branch as-is (I'll handle it later)

Which option?

Don't add explanation - keep options concise.

Why no "discard" option: when this skill fires, work is reviewed, tested, and committed. Offering discard as a peer of "merge" treats the choice as ambivalent when it isn't. If the PM genuinely wants to throw the work away, they'll say so explicitly — and that path goes through deliberate destructive-action confirmation, not a numbered menu.

No worktrees. Worktrees are forbidden — work happens on the active workstream branch. An override exists but requires explicit PM permission via the EM. If a stray worktree turns up during Step 5 below, that's debris to remove, not state to preserve.

Step 4: Execute Choice

Option 1: Merge to main via PR (Recommended)

Invoke the merging-to-main skill. This creates a PR, waits for CI checks, and merges on success. Branch is deleted after merge.

Option 2: Create a Pull Request (manual merge later)

Push the feature branch and create a PR, but do NOT merge. Use this when:

• You want the PM to review the PR before merging
• CI needs to pass but you're not ready to merge yet
• You want to come back to this later

Push the feature branch (git push -u origin <feature-branch>), then create the PR with gh pr create, giving it a title and a body with ## Summary (2-3 bullets of what changed) and ## Test Plan (verification steps as a checklist) sections.

Option 3: Keep the branch as-is

Don't merge, don't create PR. Branch stays. Use this when:

• Work is in progress and not ready for review
• You plan to continue in another session

Report: "Keeping branch <name>."

Step 5: Remove Any Stray Worktree

Check if in a worktree by grepping git worktree list for the current branch name (git branch --show-current).

If yes, remove it (git worktree remove <worktree-path>) — regardless of which option was chosen. Worktrees are forbidden, so any found here is stray debris left behind, not deliberately preserved state.

Quick Reference

| Option | PR | Merge | Cleanup Branch | |--------|-----|-------|---------------| | 1. Merge via PR | ✓ | ✓ (CI-gated) | ✓ | | 2. PR only | ✓ | - | - | | 3. Keep as-is | - | - | - |

Common Mistakes

Skipping test verification

• Problem: Merge broken code, create failing PR
• Fix: Always verify tests before offering options

Open-ended questions

• Problem: "What should I do next?" → ambiguous
• Fix: Present exactly 3 structured options

Offering discard as a numbered option

• Problem/Fix: see Step 3, "Why no 'discard' option" — don't restate it here.

Red Flags

Never:

• Proceed with failing tests
• Merge without verifying tests on result
• Offer discard as a numbered menu option
• Force-push without explicit request

Always:

• Verify tests before offering options
• Present exactly 3 options
• Remove any stray worktree found, regardless of chosen option

Integration

Called by:

• Executor-dispatch workflow — After all tasks complete
• The PM directly — when a branch is ready for disposition (merge / PR / keep)

Not called by:

• /execute-plan — execute-plan finalizes and offers /workstream-complete; it deliberately does not chain into branch disposition, since that reaches the keyword-gated /merging-to-main. Branch disposition is a separate, PM-invoked decision.

Pairs with:

• consolidate-git — operates on sibling branches/worktrees, not the current branch; kept as a separate skill from this one rather than folded, since a "fold thin engines into their only caller" consolidation only applies when the two skills share one caller and scope — these don't.

Extraction note: the Step 3 3-option menu is a judgment call nothing can compute — it stays hand-authored prose, not a computed op.