rebase

name	rebase
description	Rebases the current branch onto origin/main, resolves rebase conflicts, and force-pushes with lease using non-interactive Git commands that never open an editor. Use when updating a feature branch from main, handling rebase conflicts, or rewriting branch history before updating a pull request.

Rebase

Rebase the current branch on origin/main, resolve conflicts, and force-push the rewritten history without opening an editor.

Contents

• Contents
• How to use this skill
• Related skills
• Prerequisites
• Safety rules
• Workflow
• Step 1: Preflight checks and fetch
• Step 2: Start rebase on origin/main
• Step 3: Resolve conflicts and continue
• Step 4: Verify the rebased branch
• Step 5: Force-push with lease
• Troubleshooting

How to use this skill

Attach this file to your Copilot Chat context, then invoke it when the current branch needs to be rebased onto origin/main and pushed.

Related skills

• Resolve Feedback — follow-up workflow for addressing PR review comments after rebasing
• PR Readiness Review — final validation before opening or updating a pull request

Prerequisites

• git is installed and authenticated for the remote.
• The branch is a topic branch with an upstream on origin.
• The working tree is clean before rebasing.

Safety rules

These rules are mandatory:

• Never run this workflow on main or 4.x.
• Always fetch origin immediately before rebasing.
• Always run rebase commands with GIT_EDITOR=: and GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: so no editor opens.
• Force-push only with --force-with-lease.

Workflow

1. Preflight checks and fetch
2. Start rebase on origin/main
3. Resolve conflicts and continue
4. Verify the rebased branch
5. Force-push with lease

Step 1: Preflight checks and fetch

git branch --show-current
git status --short --branch
git fetch --prune origin

If the current branch is main or 4.x, stop and ask the user to switch to a topic branch first.

If git status --short --branch shows uncommitted changes, stop and ask the user whether to commit or stash before continuing.

Step 2: Start rebase on origin/main

GIT_EDITOR=: GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: git rebase origin/main

If the command succeeds, continue to Step 4. If it stops with conflicts, go to Step 3.

Step 3: Resolve conflicts and continue

Repeat until the rebase completes:

1. Inspect conflicted files:

   git status --short
   

2. Edit conflicted files, remove conflict markers, and keep the intended final content.

3. Stage resolved files:

   git add <resolved-path> [<resolved-path>...]
   

4. Continue the rebase without opening an editor:

   GIT_EDITOR=: GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: git rebase --continue
   

5. If Git reports an empty patch after conflict resolution, skip that commit:

   GIT_EDITOR=: GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: git rebase --skip
   

If the rebase cannot be completed safely, abort and report back:

git rebase --abort

Step 4: Verify the rebased branch

git status --short --branch
git merge-base --is-ancestor origin/main HEAD
git --no-pager log --oneline --decorate --max-count=15

git merge-base --is-ancestor origin/main HEAD must exit successfully.

Step 5: Force-push with lease

git push --force-with-lease

If push is rejected, fetch and reconcile remote updates before retrying. Never replace this with plain --force.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Rebase stops with conflicts	Resolve files, git add, then run GIT_EDITOR=: GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: git rebase --continue.
Rebase continue opens an editor	Re-run with both GIT_EDITOR=: and GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=: prefixes.
--force-with-lease push rejected	Run git fetch origin, inspect divergence, reconcile, and retry --force-with-lease.
Need to abandon rebasing attempt	Run git rebase --abort and report the reason to the user.