finishing-a-development-branch

Wrong skill? Quick pre-commit check → unified-commit-gate. Presenting results mid-work → verification-before-completion. Reviewing someone's PR → providing-code-review.

Finishing a Development Branch

When to Use

Invoke when development work on a branch is complete and ready to review, commit, or ship.

Overview

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

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

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

The Process

🔴 Step 0: Autonomous Code Review (NON-NEGOTIABLE)

Before verifying tests, before presenting options — check the sentinel, then run battery if needed.

First, run the code-review-battery Phase 0 sentinel check:

SENTINEL="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo .)/.code-review-cleared"
cat "$SENTINEL" 2>/dev/null || echo "NO CLEARANCE"
echo "HEAD: $(git rev-parse HEAD 2>/dev/null)"
git diff --quiet && git diff --cached --quiet && echo "WORKTREE_CLEAN" || echo "WORKTREE_DIRTY"

Result	Action
Valid sentinel for HEAD AND WORKTREE_CLEAN	Battery evidence confirmed. Skip dispatch, proceed to Step 1.
Any other result	Dispatch code-review-battery (via sub-agent-code-reviewer). Fix all Critical and Important findings. Re-dispatch if fixes were made. Only proceed to Step 1 when the battery verdict is PASS or PASS_WITH_NITS.

If you skip this step and present work as "ready" to the human, you have violated the gate.

Why this step exists: See the 2026-04-02 incident in verification-before-completion Incident History.

Step 1: Verify Tests

After Step 0 passes, verify tests pass:

# Run project's test suite
npm test / cargo test / pytest / go test ./...

If tests fail: Stop. Show failures. Do not proceed to Step 2.

If tests pass: Continue to Step 2.

Step 2: Determine Base Branch

git merge-base HEAD main 2>/dev/null || git merge-base HEAD master 2>/dev/null

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

Step 3: Present Options

Present exactly these 4 options:

Implementation complete. What would you like to do?

1. Merge back to <base-branch> locally
2. Push and create a Pull Request
3. Keep the branch as-is (I'll handle it later)
4. Discard this work

Which option?

Step 4: Execute Choice

Option 1 (Merge locally): Checkout base → pull → merge → verify tests on result → delete branch → cleanup worktree.

Option 2 (Push and create PR): Push branch → create PR → cleanup worktree. Note: unified-commit-gate (push mode) fires before push.

Option 3 (Keep as-is): Report status. Keep worktree.

Option 4 (Discard): Confirm first (require typed "discard"). Then delete branch and cleanup worktree.

Step 5: Cleanup Worktree

For Options 1, 2, 4 — check if in worktree and remove it. For Option 3 — keep worktree.

Anti-Patterns

Wrong	Right
Presenting options without completing Step 0	Review first, options second
Skipping test verification because review passed	Review ≠ tests. Both required.
Open-ended "What should I do next?"	Present exactly 4 structured options
Auto-cleanup worktree for Option 3	Only cleanup for Options 1 and 4
Deleting work without confirmation	Require typed "discard" for Option 4

Red Flags

• Presenting work as "ready" without completing Step 0
• Proceeding with failing tests
• Force-pushing without explicit request
• Merging without verifying tests on result

Companion Skills

• code-review-battery: The review engine Step 0 dispatches
• progressive-code-review-gate: Verdict mapping and dispatch procedure
• verification-before-completion: Fires before this skill (completion-gate order 2)
• unified-commit-gate (push mode): Fires when Option 2 triggers a push
• subagent-driven-development: Calls this skill after all tasks complete