| name | make-branch |
| description | Move changes from main or a placeholder branch to a well-named feature branch, preserving commits and working tree state. Use before opening a PR when work started on main or an auto-generated branch name. |
/make-branch — Move changes from main to a new branch
When you've been working on main (or a random placeholder branch like a petname) and want to PR, this skill creates a well-named feature branch and moves your commits and uncommitted changes onto it.
Workflow
1. Assess the situation
Run these in parallel:
git branch --show-current
git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline
git diff --stat
git diff --cached --stat
Classify the current branch:
main / master — proceed with the branch-out flow (Cases A/B/C below).- Placeholder / petname branch — proceed with the in-place rename flow (Case D). A branch is a placeholder if any of these match:
- Petname pattern:
^[a-z]+-[a-z]+$ (two lowercase words joined by a single hyphen, no slash, no digits — e.g. useful-pony, sound-midge, novel-aphid). Claude Code and similar tools auto-generate these.
- Generic placeholder name:
wip, tmp, temp, test, scratch, work, or similar.
- The user passes an argument asking to rename (e.g. "because this branch is petname", "rename this branch").
- Already-conventional branch — a branch matching
^(feat|fix|refactor|docs|test|chore|perf|ci)/.+ is well-named. Abort and tell the user to use /make-pr directly.
- Protected branches (
develop, dev, staging, production, release/*) — abort; don't touch these.
Abort if there's nothing to move — no commits ahead of origin/main and no uncommitted changes (only applies to the branch-out flow; the rename flow can proceed with only committed work).
2. Generate a branch name
Analyze the commits and/or diff to understand the theme of the changes. Generate a branch name:
- Format:
<type>/<short-kebab-description> (e.g., feat/add-type-annotations, fix/url-parsing, refactor/simplify-session)
- Types:
feat, fix, refactor, docs, test, chore, perf, ci
- Keep it under 50 chars, descriptive, no issue numbers unless obvious
3. Move changes to the new branch
Handle three cases:
Case A: Commits ahead of origin/main + uncommitted changes
git stash --include-untracked
git branch <branch-name>
git reset --hard origin/main
git switch <branch-name>
git stash pop
Case B: Commits ahead of origin/main only (clean working tree)
git branch <branch-name>
git reset --hard origin/main
git switch <branch-name>
Case C: Uncommitted changes only (no commits ahead)
git switch -c <branch-name>
Case D: Already on a placeholder / petname branch — rename in place
Safe, non-destructive. Preserves all commits and working-tree state; no stash needed.
git branch -m <old-placeholder> <branch-name>
If the placeholder branch was already pushed to origin, also update the remote:
git push origin :<old-placeholder> <branch-name>
git push -u origin <branch-name>
4. Verify and report
git branch --show-current
git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline
git status --short
Print a summary:
- Branch name created
- Number of commits moved
- Working tree status
- Suggest running
/make-pr next
Guidelines
- Always fetch before comparing:
git fetch origin main first
- Never force-delete or lose commits — the stash+reset approach is safe
- If
origin/main doesn't exist (e.g., fresh repo), use origin/master or abort with a message
- Don't commit uncommitted changes — just move them to the new branch as-is
- Pick a branch name that would make sense as a PR title prefix
