docs: forbid merge commits, prefer rebase when landing PRs - #203
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Two rules that were practice but not written down, so an agent had no way to follow them. Merge commits: refreshing a feature branch with `git merge master` adds a commit whose only content is that you were behind, and turns a readable line of work into a diamond. Rebase onto the moved base instead. The existing force-push bullet already blessed rebasing; this says plainly that merging is not the alternative. Landing PRs: prefer rebase over squash. Individual commits record what was tried and in what order; squashing collapses that into one message that can only summarise. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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The first pass overstated the squash rule as "rebase, not squash" and allowed it only for fixup-heavy branches. The actual policy is looser: rebase is the default everywhere, squash is a judgement call and fine where it makes things easier or fits the branch better. The merge-commit ban goes the other way and is now stated as absolute -- not locally, not to refresh a branch, not to land a PR. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Two working-agreement rules that were practice but undocumented — so an agent reading
AGENTS.mdhad no way to follow them. I broke both today, which is how they surfaced.No merge commits. Refreshing a feature branch with
git merge masteradds a commit whose only content is that you were behind, and turns a readable line of work into a diamond. Rebase onto the moved base instead. The existing force-push bullet already blessed rebasing — this states plainly that merging is not the alternative to it.Land PRs with rebase, not squash. Individual commits carry what was tried and in what order; squashing collapses that into a single message that can only summarise. Squash stays available for the case it suits: one logical change scattered across fixup commits.
Identical wording in all ten frontend repos, appended to the existing Git workflow section.
Worth knowing
allow_merge_commitis alreadyfalseon every one of these repos, so rule one has a server-side backstop.allow_squash_mergeis stilltrue, so rule two is convention only right now. Say the word and I'll turn squash off in the repo settings so the setting matches the agreement — I have not touched repo settings on my own.🤖 Generated with Claude Code