| name | git-discipline |
| description | Use before starting work, after reaching any working state, at session end, and when the user asks to undo or go back — keeps every change recoverable and the history readable. |
| version | 3 |
Git Discipline
The repo is local-only. Branches are an undo mechanism here, not a review mechanism.
History is the backup — treat it that way.
Rules
main is the working branch; commit directly for routine work.- Commit at every working state — "working" means the project's own checks pass,
not merely that the file was saved. Small commits beat big ones.
- Message format: first line = what changed for the tool; body = why, when the why isn't
obvious. English. Written so a future session — or a hired developer — can follow the
history without asking anyone.
- Risky or experimental work: branch first (
git checkout -b try-<thing>), merge when it
works. Abandoned experiment: journal it (what was tried, why abandoned — journaling
skill), then delete the branch. (git branch -D — under the template's stock allowlist
this shows a permission box by design; tell the user in one plain sentence what is
being deleted and why before confirming.)
- Docs, CHANGELOG and index updates go in the SAME commit as the change they describe.
- Session end = clean tree (
git status shows nothing) and a journal entry. Genuinely
half-done work: commit it on a branch named wip-<thing> with a commit message starting wip: plus a journal entry saying
exactly where it stands.
- Never rewrite history: no
reset --hard, no --amend (not even on the latest commit), no force anything.
A wrong commit is fixed by a new commit.
Explaining git to the user
Only when they need to care. "I save a snapshot after every change, so we can always go
back" covers most conversations. Never make the user run git commands.
