git%3Abranch by wilmanbarrios/skills

Input

$ARGUMENTS = optional hint describing the branch purpose, type, or ticket.

Step 1 — Gather Context

Run all of these in parallel:

1a. Working Tree Status

git status --short

Note whether there are uncommitted changes — they will be carried to the new branch (or stashed if needed).

1b. Detect Target Branch Candidates

git branch -a

Filter the output for common base branches:

Match these names: main, master, develop, development, dev, staging, stage, production, prod, and any release/* branches
Strip remotes/origin/ prefixes and deduplicate (if a branch exists both locally and on the remote, keep one entry)
Sort by priority: main/master → develop/dev/development → staging/stage → production/prod → release/*
If no candidates are found, fall back to the current branch

Step 2 — Select Branch Type

Use AskUserQuestion to ask "What type of branch?". Options:

Option	Description
`feature`	New functionality or capability
`fix`	Bug fix
`task`	Non-feature work (refactoring, config, chores)
`hotfix`	Urgent production fix

If $ARGUMENTS clearly implies a type (e.g., "fix the login bug" → fix), mark that option as recommended.

If the user needs pre-release or release, they can type it via "Other".

Step 3 — Describe the Branch

Use AskUserQuestion to ask "Brief description of the branch?". Provide 2 options:

If $ARGUMENTS contains a useful hint, propose a pre-built slug as the first (recommended) option
A second option inviting the user to type their own description via "Other"

Rules for building the slug:

Always translate to English regardless of input language
Extract ticket ID if present — pattern: one or more uppercase letters, a hyphen, one or more digits (e.g., OTH-478, FEAT-12). Keep the ticket ID separate; it goes in the branch name prefix, not the slug.
Convert to kebab-case: lowercase, hyphens between words, 3–5 words, max ~50 characters
Strip filler words (the, a, an, for, to) when they push past the limit

Step 4 — Confirm & Create

Construct the full branch name:

With ticket: {type}/{TICKET-ID}-{slug} (e.g., feature/OTH-478-add-cdk-infrastructure)
Without ticket: {type}/{slug} (e.g., fix/resolve-login-timeout)

Use AskUserQuestion to confirm. List each target branch candidate as an option. The first (recommended) option should use a preview showing:

Branch:  {full-branch-name}
From:    {target-branch}
Command: git switch -c {full-branch-name} {target-branch}

Note: Your uncommitted changes will be carried to the new branch.

(Omit the "Note" line if there are no uncommitted changes.)

On confirmation, run:

git switch -c {branch-name} {target-branch}

Fallback: uncommitted changes conflict

If git switch fails because of uncommitted changes that would be overwritten:

git stash
git switch -c {branch-name} {target-branch}
git stash pop

If git stash pop reports conflicts, inform the user that their changes are safe in the stash (git stash list) and they need to resolve conflicts manually. Do not drop the stash.

Edge case: branch already exists

If the branch name already exists, inform the user and ask for an alternative description (go back to Step 3).

Finish

Run git status to verify the new branch is active and show the result.

git:branch