| name | post-merge |
| description | Use immediately after a PR is merged to clean up the local feature branch and resync main. Triggers — "/engineer.post-merge", "did we merge", "did we push", "PR merged", "post-merge cleanup", or right after a `gh pr merge` succeeds in the same session. |
post-merge
The branch-hygiene skill that runs immediately after a PR merges — not deferred to the next session. next and session-summary already catch a stale branch at session boundaries (v1.7.1); post-merge closes the gap in between, where users were still asking "are we still on the feature branch?" mid-session.
When to use
- Auto — invoke right after observing a successful
gh pr merge, gh pr merge --auto, or a "Merged" PR state in gh pr view --json state. The agent that ran the merge calls this skill before doing anything else.
- Manual —
/engineer.post-merge or the trigger phrases above.
Not for: cleanup when the PR isn't merged yet (the work isn't done); session-end teardown (session-summary handles that); session-start survey (next already probes for stale branches as a backstop).
Workflow
-
Resolve + identify merged branch. Resolve the methodology root via ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/dae_resolve.py. Get the current branch (git branch --show-current). If it's main/master/the repo's default branch, there's nothing to clean — stop and report.
-
Probe merge state. Run git fetch origin --quiet, then check whether the current branch has been merged:
- GitHub-side check (preferred when
gh is available): gh pr view --json state,mergedAt,headRefName --jq '.state' for the PR linked to this branch. State of MERGED is the strongest signal.
- Git-side check (fallback):
git merge-base --is-ancestor HEAD origin/HEAD (or origin/main). True means every commit on this branch is reachable from main.
If neither check confirms a merge, stop — the work isn't shipped yet. Report what was checked.
-
Run the cleanup. Run the three commands in order, stopping on any non-zero exit:
git checkout <default-branch>
git pull --ff-only
git branch -d <merged-branch>
git branch -d (not -D) refuses unmerged work — non-destructive by construction. If it refuses, surface what's unmerged and stop; don't escalate to -D without explicit user confirmation.
-
Prune stale remote refs. git fetch origin --prune. Removes pointers to remote branches that no longer exist (e.g. when the GitHub "delete branch on merge" setting removed the remote).
-
Update tracker (if applicable). If the merged branch's feature has a TrackedFeature record, set its status to done and record merged_at from gh pr view. This dispatches via ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/handoff-dispatch.md — at autonomy medium/high, auto-invoke /engineer.progress-log; at low, surface and ask.
-
Handoff. Emit a summary per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/handoff-summary.md. checkpoint: null; artifacts: []; human_action_needed: no. The handoff records: the merged branch name, the PR URL (if known), and the new HEAD commit. recommended_next points at /engineer.next if the feature is shipped, or the relevant fix/session continuation otherwise.
Autonomy dispatch
| Level | Behavior |
|---|
high | Run all six steps. Report a one-line summary. |
medium | Run all six steps. Report what changed (one short paragraph). |
low | Surface the planned commands and the merge-state evidence; wait for confirmation before running. |
When NOT to use this skill
- The PR is open or in review → wait until it's actually merged.
- The merge happened on a different branch than the one currently checked out → switch to that branch first (or just
git fetch --prune and skip the rest).
- You squashed and force-pushed →
git branch -d will refuse; that's expected. Either confirm -D manually or rebase onto main and try again.
References
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/handoff-summary.md — handoff schema${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/handoff-dispatch.md — autonomy-driven dispatch rule- Sister skills:
next (session-start stale-branch backstop), session-summary (session-end stale-branch backstop), progress-log (tracker propagation)
