Git Workflow Skill

Expert patterns for Git version control workflows including branching strategies, commit conventions, collaborative workflows, and CI/CD integration.

🔌 Compatibility

This is an Agent Skill following the open standard originally developed by Anthropic and released for cross-platform use.

Supported Platforms:

• ✅ Claude Code (Anthropic)
• ✅ Cursor
• ✅ GitHub Copilot
• ✅ Other skills-compatible AI agents

Skills are portable packages of procedural knowledge that work across any AI agent supporting the Agent Skills specification.

Features

• Branching Strategies: Git Flow (feature/release/hotfix branches), GitHub Flow (simple feature branches), trunk-based development, release management patterns
• Commit Conventions: Conventional Commits standard, semantic versioning integration, commit message best practices, atomic commit patterns
• Collaborative Workflows: Pull request best practices, code review processes, merge strategies (merge, squash, rebase), conflict resolution patterns
• CI/CD Integration: GitHub Actions workflows, GitLab CI patterns, branch protection rules, automated versioning
• Git Hooks: Pre-commit hooks for linting and testing, commit message validation
• Advanced Operations: Interactive rebase, cherry-picking, stashing, reflog recovery

Installation

Marketplace (Recommended)

Add the Netresearch marketplace once, then browse and install skills:

# Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace
/plugin install git-workflow@netresearch-claude-code-marketplace

Without a marketplace

Since Claude Code 2.1.157 a plugin directory under your personal skills directory loads on its own, including the hooks and commands this repo ships:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/netresearch/git-workflow-skill.git \
  ~/.claude/skills/git-workflow

It loads as git-workflow@skills-dir on the next session. Update with git -C ~/.claude/skills/git-workflow pull and start a new session; remove it by deleting the directory. This route has no claude plugin update.

npx (skills.sh)

Install with any Agent Skills-compatible agent:

npx skills add https://github.com/netresearch/git-workflow-skill --skill git-workflow

Limitation: npx skills installs SKILL.md-based skills only. This repo also ships hooks, commands, which it does not install — use the marketplace or the skills directory for those.

Download Release

Download the latest release and extract to your agent's skills directory.

Git Clone

git clone https://github.com/netresearch/git-workflow-skill.git

Composer (PHP Projects)

composer require netresearch/git-workflow-skill

Requires netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin.

npm (Node Projects)

npm install --save-dev \
  @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator \
  github:netresearch/git-workflow-skill

Requires @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator, which discovers the skill in node_modules and registers it in AGENTS.md via a postinstall hook. For pnpm, also allowlist the coordinator's postinstall:

{
  "pnpm": {
    "onlyBuiltDependencies": ["@netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator"]
  }
}

Usage

This skill is automatically triggered when:

• Establishing branching strategies (Git Flow, GitHub Flow, Trunk-based)
• Implementing Conventional Commits for semantic versioning
• Configuring pull request workflows
• Integrating Git with CI/CD systems
• Setting up Git hooks for quality gates
• Resolving merge conflicts
• Configuring branch protection rules

Example queries:

• "Set up Git Flow workflow"
• "Configure conventional commits with semantic versioning"
• "Create GitHub Actions workflow for CI/CD"
• "Set up pre-commit hooks for linting"
• "Configure branch protection rules"
• "Implement pull request review process"

Commands

• /pr-finish [PR] — drive a pull request to a fully-green, merged state: preflight the merge gate in one block, rebase, fix CI locally, reply to and resolve every review thread, update the title/description, and merge when green. Operates on the named PR or the current branch's PR.

Structure

git-workflow-skill/                       # abbreviated — key files only
├── skills/git-workflow/
│   ├── SKILL.md                          # Skill metadata and core patterns
│   ├── ...                               # checkpoints.yaml, evals/, hooks
│   └── references/
│       ├── commit-conventions.md         # Commit message standards
│       ├── pull-request-workflow.md      # PR and review processes
│       ├── ci-cd-integration.md          # CI watching, git mirrors
│       └── advanced-git.md               # Advanced Git operations
├── commands/
│   └── pr-finish.md                      # /pr-finish slash command
└── scripts/
    └── verify-harness.sh                 # Harness verification script

Expertise Areas

Commit Conventions

• Conventional Commits standard
• Semantic versioning mapping (feat/fix/etc.)
• Signed commits + DCO sign-off
• Atomic commit patterns

Collaborative Workflows

• Default-branch check before PR/scripting operations
• Atomic commits, no squash unless asked
• Merge strategies, review-thread resolution, merge gate
• Conflict resolution patterns

CI/CD Integration

• Watching CI from the CLI (gh pr checks, gh run watch)
• Git mirror repository sync (git push --mirror gotchas)

Conventional Commits Format

<type>[optional scope]: <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]

Types:

• feat: New feature (MINOR version bump)
• fix: Bug fix (PATCH version bump)
• docs: Documentation only
• style: Code style (formatting, no logic change)
• refactor: Code refactoring
• perf: Performance improvements
• test: Adding/updating tests
• build: Build system changes
• ci: CI configuration changes
• chore: Maintenance tasks
• revert: Reverting changes

Breaking Changes:

feat!: remove deprecated API endpoints

BREAKING CHANGE: The /api/v1/users endpoint has been removed.
Use /api/v2/users instead.

Quick Reference

Daily Workflow

# Start of day
git checkout main && git pull
git checkout -b feature/my-feature

# During development
git add -p                    # Stage hunks interactively
git commit -m "feat: ..."     # Commit with conventional message

# Ready for review
git push -u origin HEAD
gh pr create

# After merge
git checkout main && git pull
git branch -d feature/my-feature

Emergency Fixes

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Revert a specific commit
git revert <commit-hash>

# Fix last commit message
git commit --amend -m "new message"

# Fix last commit (add forgotten file)
git add forgotten-file.txt
git commit --amend --no-edit

Related Skills

• enterprise-readiness-skill: Git workflow is part of CI/CD maturity
• security-audit-skill: Git hooks for security checks

License

This project uses split licensing:

• Code (scripts, workflows, configs): MIT
• Content (skill definitions, documentation, references): CC-BY-SA-4.0

See the individual license files for full terms.

Credits

Developed and maintained by Netresearch DTT GmbH.

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Made with ❤️ for Open Source by Netresearch