create-branch

name	create-branch
description	Create a git branch following Sentry naming conventions. Use when asked to \\"create a branch\\", \\"new branch\\", \\"start a branch\\", \\"make a branch\\", \\"switch to a new branch\\", or when starting new work on the default branch.
type	skill
created	2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z
domain	software-development
category	devtools
risk	critical
source	community
tags	["skill","software-development","devtools","create","branch"]

Create Branch

Create a git branch with the correct type prefix and a descriptive name following Sentry conventions.

When to Use

• You need to create a new git branch that follows the repository's naming convention.
• You are starting a new piece of work from the default branch and need help classifying it as feat, fix, docs, or another branch type.
• You want the branch name proposed from either the task description or the current local diff.

Step 1: Get the Username Prefix

Run gh api user --jq .login to get the GitHub username.

If the command fails (e.g. not authenticated), ask the user for their preferred prefix.

Step 2: Determine the Branch Description

If $ARGUMENTS is provided, use it as the description of the work.

If no arguments, check for local changes:

git diff
git diff --cached
git status --short

• Changes exist: read the diff content to understand what the work is about and generate a description.
• No changes: ask the user what they are about to work on.

Step 3: Classify the Type

Pick the type from this table based on the description:

Type	Use when
feat	New user-facing functionality
fix	Broken behavior now works
ref	Same behavior, different structure
chore	Deps, config, version bumps, updating existing tooling — no new logic
perf	Same behavior, faster
style	CSS, formatting, visual-only
docs	Documentation only
test	Tests only
ci	CI/CD config
build	Build system
meta