/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:

bash

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

bash

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)

bash

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

Case C: Uncommitted changes only (no commits ahead)

bash

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.

bash

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

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

bash

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

4. Verify and report

bash

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

make-branch

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

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

Workflow

1. Assess the situation

2. Generate a branch name

3. Move changes to the new branch

4. Verify and report

Guidelines