make-branch

name: make-branch description: Move changes from main or a placeholder branch to a well-named feature branch, preserving commits and working tree state. Use before opening a PR when work started on main or an auto-generated branch name.

/make-branch — Move changes from main to a new branch

When you've been working on main (or a random placeholder branch like a petname) and want to PR, this skill creates a well-named feature branch and moves your commits and uncommitted changes onto it.

Workflow

1. Assess the situation

Run these in parallel:

git branch --show-current
git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline
git diff --stat
git diff --cached --stat

Classify the current branch:

• main / master — proceed with the branch-out flow (Cases A/B/C below).
• Placeholder / petname branch — proceed with the in-place rename flow (Case D). A branch is a placeholder if any of these match:
  • Petname pattern: ^[a-z]+-[a-z]+$ (two lowercase words joined by a single hyphen, no slash, no digits — e.g. useful-pony, sound-midge, novel-aphid). Claude Code and similar tools auto-generate these.
  • Generic placeholder name: wip, tmp, temp, test, scratch, work, or similar.
  • The user passes an argument asking to rename (e.g. "because this branch is petname", "rename this branch").
• Already-conventional branch — a branch matching ^(feat|fix|refactor|docs|test|chore|perf|ci)/.+ is well-named. Abort and tell the user to use /make-pr directly.
• Protected branches (develop, dev, staging, production, release/*) — abort; don't touch these.

Abort if there's nothing to move — no commits ahead of origin/main and no uncommitted changes (only applies to the branch-out flow; the rename flow can proceed with only committed work).

2. Generate a branch name

Analyze the commits and/or diff to understand the theme of the changes. Generate a branch name:

• Format: <type>/<short-kebab-description> (e.g., feat/add-type-annotations, fix/url-parsing, refactor/simplify-session)
• Types: feat, fix, refactor, docs, test, chore, perf, ci
• Keep it under 50 chars, descriptive, no issue numbers unless obvious

3. Move changes to the new branch

Handle three cases:

Case A: Commits ahead of origin/main + uncommitted changes

git stash --include-untracked
git branch <branch-name>
git reset --hard origin/main
git switch <branch-name>
git stash pop

Case B: Commits ahead of origin/main only (clean working tree)

git branch <branch-name>
git reset --hard origin/main
git switch <branch-name>

Case C: Uncommitted changes only (no commits ahead)

git switch -c <branch-name>

Case D: Already on a placeholder / petname branch — rename in place

Safe, non-destructive. Preserves all commits and working-tree state; no stash needed.

git branch -m <old-placeholder> <branch-name>

If the placeholder branch was already pushed to origin, also update the remote:

git push origin :<old-placeholder> <branch-name>
git push -u origin <branch-name>

4. Verify and report

git branch --show-current
git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline
git status --short

Print a summary:

• Branch name created
• Number of commits moved
• Working tree status
• Suggest running /make-pr next

Guidelines

• Always fetch before comparing: git fetch origin main first
• Never force-delete or lose commits — the stash+reset approach is safe
• If origin/main doesn't exist (e.g., fresh repo), use origin/master or abort with a message
• Don't commit uncommitted changes — just move them to the new branch as-is
• Pick a branch name that would make sense as a PR title prefix