consolidate-git

Consolidate Git — Branch Cleanup + Merge

Overview

Reduce branch sprawl to a single clean main. Inventories all local and remote branches, absorbs any unique commits into the current branch, deletes stale branches, then merges to main via /merge-to-main.

Announce at start: "I'm using the coordinator:consolidate-git skill to consolidate all branches and merge to main."

The Process

Step 1: Inventory Branches

List all local and remote branches, determine ownership, and categorize.

1a. Identify the current user:

MY_EMAIL=$(git config user.email)

1b. List all branches with tip author:

git branch -a

For each branch (excluding main and the current branch), check the author of the most recent commit on the tip:

# Local branch:
git log -1 --format='%ae' <branch>

# Remote-only branch:
git log -1 --format='%ae' origin/<branch>

1c. Categorize each branch:

Category	Definition	Action
current	The checked-out branch	Absorb target — everything merges here
main	The trunk branch	Merge target — current branch merges here at the end
mine (stale)	Tip author matches $MY_EMAIL	Check for unique commits, absorb if any, then delete
other's	Tip author does NOT match $MY_EMAIL	Leave untouched

1d. Present the inventory to the PM as a table:

| Branch | Local | Remote | Owner | Category |
|--------|-------|--------|-------|----------|
| main | yes | yes | — | trunk |
| work/striker/2026-03-20 | yes | yes | me | mine (stale) |
| feature/foo | no | yes | me | mine (stale) |
| feature/bar | no | yes | alice@co.com | other's — skipped |
| work/striker/2026-03-23 | yes (current) | yes | me | current |

Only branches categorized as "mine (stale)" proceed to Steps 2–4. Other people's branches are reported but never touched.

Step 2: Check for Unique Commits

For each stale branch, check if it has commits not in the current branch:

# For local branches:
git log --oneline <current-branch>..<stale-branch>

# For remote-only branches:
git log --oneline <current-branch>..origin/<stale-branch>

Categorize the result:

• No unique commits — safe to delete immediately
• Has unique commits — inspect them, then absorb or skip

Step 3: Absorb Unique Commits

For each stale branch with unique commits:

1. Inspect the commits — git show --stat <commit> to understand what changed
2. Choose absorption strategy:
   • Cherry-pick (default for 1-3 commits): git cherry-pick <commit> --no-edit
   • Merge (for branches with many commits): git merge <stale-branch> --no-edit
3. If conflicts arise:
   • Inspect the conflicting files — determine if the current branch already supersedes the change
   • If superseded: abort (git cherry-pick --abort or git merge --abort) and skip — note this in the report
   • If genuinely needed: resolve conflicts, then continue
   • Do NOT force through conflicts blindly — each conflict is a signal that needs inspection

Report each absorption decision to the PM:

"Branch work/striker/2026-03-20 has 2 unique commits — both are experiment data snapshots already superseded by current branch. Skipping."

or:

"Branch feature/auth-rewrite has 5 unique commits with real code changes. Cherry-picking into current branch."

Step 4: Delete Stale Branches

After all unique commits are absorbed (or explicitly skipped), delete stale branches:

# Local branches — use safe delete (-d), not force delete (-D)
git branch -d <branch>

# Remote branches — batch deletions into one push
git push origin --delete <branch1> <branch2> <branch3>

Use -d (safe delete), not -D. Safe delete will refuse if the branch has unmerged commits — this is a final safety net. If -d refuses, investigate before escalating to -D with PM approval.

After deletion, prune stale remote tracking refs:

git fetch --prune

Step 5: Merge to Main

Invoke /merge-to-main to create a PR, wait for CI, merge, and clean up.

If the current branch IS main (because all work was already absorbed and we're cleaning remotes only), skip this step.

Step 6: Report

## Branch Consolidation Complete

### Absorbed
- `work/striker/2026-03-20` — no unique commits (already merged)
- `feature/foo` — 3 commits cherry-picked into current branch

### Skipped (superseded)
- `work/striker/2026-03-19` — 1 commit (stale experiment data, current branch has newer version)

### Deleted
- Local: work/striker/2026-03-20, work/striker/2026-03-19
- Remote: origin/work/striker/2026-03-20, origin/work/striker/2026-03-19, origin/feature/foo

### Left Untouched (other owners)
- `feature/bar` (alice@co.com) — not ours, skipped

### Merged to Main
- PR: {url}
- Now on: main @ {sha}
- All of *our* branches cleaned — only main + other owners' branches remain

Edge Cases

If on main with no other branches: Abort early — nothing to consolidate.

If the current branch is behind main: Merge main into the current branch first before absorbing other branches — ensures the final state includes everything.

If a stale branch has diverged significantly: Prefer merge over cherry-pick. If the merge has extensive conflicts, flag to the PM rather than resolving silently — the PM may want to inspect before committing.

If remote branches have no local counterpart: Fetch them first (git fetch origin <branch>) to inspect their commits, then delete the remote after inspection.

What This Does NOT Do

• Rebase — merges and cherry-picks only. Rebasing rewrites history and adds risk for no benefit in a cleanup operation.
• Touch other repos — scoped to the current repository only.
• Delete main — main is always preserved as the merge target.
• Force-delete branches — uses -d (safe) by default. -D only with explicit PM approval.
• Touch other people's branches — only branches where the tip commit author matches the current user's git config user.email are candidates. Everyone else's branches are reported but never modified or deleted.