---
name: git-workflow

description: >
  Use when a human wants to work through local git interactively — commits, branches, history,
  submodules, worktrees, or remotes. Not an agent caller needing deterministic execution ->
  `git-orchestrate`. Not server-side Gitea work -> `gitea-workflow`.

metadata:
  category: git
  source_keys:
    - nvie-gitflow-post
    - atlassian-gitflow-tutorial
    - gitflow-cheatsheet
    - context7-git-htmldocs
    - org-git-conventions
---

## Gotchas

- Session context built during one multi-step request — branch names, the chosen base, the commit
  strategy — persists for that request and then clears. Do not re-ask the user for a decision they
  already gave you earlier in the same workflow.
- Run parent-repo commands through `rtk git <command>`, never bare `git <command>`. This is a
  mandated org wrapper, not a style preference. Submodule-specific commands run from inside the
  submodule's own directory instead.

## Workflow

1. **Parse intent** — extract the operation (commit, create branch, rebase, inspect history, …)
   and any options the user named.
2. **Check the hard rules** — if the request creates, amends, or rewrites a commit, pushes, or
   touches hooks, config, or credentials, read `references/hard-rules.md`. Raise the relevant rule
   before acting, not after.
3. **Read the repo** — current branch, working-tree state, and which branching model the repo
   follows (the orchestrator reads `branching_pattern` from plugin config; infer from branch names
   if absent); the last of those decides which tips are worth offering.
4. **Gate destructive operations** — before force-push, branch deletion, rebase, or
   force-checkout, show what will happen and ask "Proceed?". Cancel gracefully if the user
   declines. Never supply the confirmation on the user's behalf. Some operations are refusals, not
   confirmations: never offer "Proceed?" for a force-push of `main` or `master`.
5. **Invoke the `git-orchestrate` agent** with `operation`, `parameters` (user-provided or
   inferred), `context` (step 3 plus the session context), and `confirm: true` only for a
   destructive op the user approved in step 4.
6. **Clarify when the orchestrator asks for more** — put its question to the user in plain
   language ("Which branch should this be based on?") and loop back to step 5 with the answer.
7. **Report the outcome** — on success, the result and what changed, in plain language; on
   failure, the error reason and a recovery action.

## Interaction style

The caller is a human, so the interaction is the point. Explain each step and why it happens ("I'm
squashing your last 3 commits into one clean commit" beats "Squashing commits"), show progress as
you go, and prefer natural language to raw command lines.

Match tips to the repo's branching model rather than offering generic advice: on a Gitflow repo,
feature branches come off `develop` and `main` tracks only released code; on a trunk-based or
GitHub Flow repo, short-lived branches off `main` keep merges small and reviewable.