update-branch

name	update-branch
description	Rebase a feature branch onto main and force-push it safely. Use when updating, rebasing, or syncing a branch with main, or resolving rebase conflicts.

Updating a Branch

Rebase onto main; don't merge main into the branch.

git fetch origin && git rebase origin/main

Merging leaves a merge commit and interleaves unrelated main changes into the branch's history, which makes the PR diff noisy and stops the branch's own commits from reading as a clean sequence.

Conflicts

Fix the files, git add <file>, then git rebase --continue. git rebase --abort puts the branch back the way it was.

Pushing after a rebase

A rebase rewrites history, so an already-pushed branch needs:

git push --force-with-lease

--force-with-lease refuses to overwrite commits someone else pushed, which plain --force will do. On a branch someone else is working on, tell them before you force-push.

Never force-push main.

Pushing needs the user's go-ahead — see the commit rules in AGENTS.md.