finding-uncommitted-work

name	finding-uncommitted-work
disable-model-invocation	true
description	Systematic scan for work-in-progress across repositories. Use at end of day/week, before context switches, when resuming after a break, or before machine migrations. Finds uncommitted changes, unpushed commits, unmerged branches, and non-main branch state.

Finding Uncommitted Work

Systematic scan for work-in-progress across repositories that hasn't been committed, pushed, or merged.

Searches recursively for git repos. Excludes process artifacts (DATA_SOURCES.md, LEARNINGS.md, PLAN_*.md, etc.). Finds: uncommitted changes, unpushed commits, unmerged branches, repos on non-main branches.

Triage priority: uncommitted changes (highest risk), unpushed commits (local only), unmerged branches (safe on remote), non-main branches (context indicator).

Common Mistakes

1. Scanning too deep — find ~/repo -maxdepth 10 finds nested .git dirs inside vendor/node_modules. Use maxdepth 3-4.
2. Missing stashes — git stash list is easy to skip but stashes contain real work that won't show in status.
3. Ignoring worktrees — git worktree list may reveal isolated copies with uncommitted work.
4. Counting process artifacts as real changes — DATA_SOURCES.md, LEARNINGS.md, PLAN_*.md are expected to be dirty. Exclude them from "uncommitted work" alerts.
5. Not checking submodules — submodules can have their own uncommitted state that parent git status doesn't show.