# gitea-branches

Manage Gitea repository branches and inspect commit history via the Gitea MCP server.

## What it does

This skill handles branch lifecycle operations (list, create, delete) and read-only commit
history (list commits, get a single commit's full detail) against a Gitea repository. It resolves
`owner`/`repo` from the git remote, dispatches to the right MCP tool, and applies safety and
pagination conventions specific to Gitea's API (e.g. refusing to delete a protected branch without
explicit confirmation, and treating unexpected 404s as possible masked 403s).

## Boundaries

This skill operates on the Gitea server via the MCP tools, never on your local checkout. Branch
and commit-history work against the working copy belongs to `git-branches` and `git-history`.
Branch references that only exist relative to a pull request — a PR's head or base branch, and
cross-repo fork PR heads in particular — belong to `gitea-prs`; `list_branches` cannot see a fork's
head at all.

The skill triggers on phrasings like "list branches", "create a branch", "delete a branch",
"what commits are on this branch", "show commit <sha>", and "what changed in that commit", even
when the user does not say "Gitea", as long as the repo's remote is a Gitea instance.

## Before you start

Requires a Gitea MCP server configured with a token that has `write:repository` scope. This is
confirmed for `list_branches`, `create_branch`, and `delete_branch` (Gitea gates reads behind write
scope for repo-scoped operations); `list_commits` and `get_commit` are inferred to need the same
scope by analogy, not explicitly confirmed — see `references/commits.md`. Requires a git remote
named `origin` pointing at the Gitea instance.

## Usage

```
/gitea-branches
```

Describe your task: list/create/delete a branch, or list/inspect commits. See `SKILL.md`'s
dispatch table for the full set of recognized invocations.

## Files

| File | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `SKILL.md` | Skill instructions for agents — dispatch table, gotchas |
| `references/branches.md` | Verified call signatures and mechanics for list/create/delete branch |
| `references/commits.md` | Verified call signatures and mechanics for list/get commit |
| `references/sources.md` | Research sources backing the branch/commit guidance |