feat(worktree): name worktrees wedged in an abandoned merge by BunsDev · Pull Request #4499 · OpenCoven/coven-cave

BunsDev · 2026-08-10T11:08:18Z

Closes cave-97svy.

The signal

A worktree left mid-merge blocked its branch for three days and was reported repeatedly as a persistent blocker. Every session that found it did the right thing — saw 137 uncommitted paths, read them as another session's in-flight work, and backed off rather than clobber a colleague.

Backing off was correct each time. The missing information was whether anyone was still there.

Root cause

Nothing in src/lib or scripts references MERGE_HEAD, rebase-merge, or CHERRY_PICK_HEAD — verified by grep before this change. So a paused git operation has no name, no age, and no remedy anywhere in the tooling:

the lifecycle patrol classifies on dirty/retention/PR state,
the auto-lock hook locks anything dirty,
the retention-push hook pushes unpushed commits,
the status dashboard printed 137 dirty.

All four are satisfied by a wedged worktree. It looks exactly like live work, forever.

scripts/worktree-status.mjs was also documented in neither AGENTS.md nor CLAUDE.md, so the one tool positioned to answer this was not something a session would think to run.

The fix

A WEDGED verdict on the local dashboard that detects merge / rebase / cherry-pick / revert / bisect markers, dates the stall from the marker mtime, lists the unresolved paths, and — the part that unblocks a decision — compares every dirty path's mtime against the moment the operation stalled:

nothing tracked touched since → no hand resolution exists; the tree is raw merge output both parents reproduce, and abort is lossless
something tracked touched since → a human is mid-resolution; the report says do NOT abort and marks the abort command "only with the owner's say-so"
unreadable tree → fails closed to the same warning, since "nobody touched it" is the fact the abort decision leans on

Retention of both merge parents is reported alongside (network-free, via remote-tracking refs and tags), so an abort is only called lossless when nothing would be stranded; otherwise the archive-tag command prints instead.

WEDGED outranks every verdict including PRIMARY, and is never SAFE-RETIRE — so neither --prune nor wt:retire-on-exit can remove a tree holding unfinished work.

Verification

Against the real wedged worktree, the tool independently reproduces the manual forensics that took ~20 minutes:

🟠 WEDGED — docs/cave-zs85n-chat-sidebar-attention
   merge paused 2d ago (2026-08-07T23:50:31.967Z), marker MERGE_HEAD
   unresolved paths (5):
     src/app/api/chat/send/chat-send-capabilities.ts
     ...
   ✓ no tracked file touched since the merge stalled (1 untracked file(s) added since) —
      the tree is raw merge output with no hand resolution to lose.
      Both sides are reachable from a remote-tracking ref or tag, so an abort strands nothing.
   finish it:  cd '…' && git commit
   or drop it: cd '…' && git merge --abort

node --test scripts/worktree-status.test.mjs — 11/11 pass (6 pre-existing, 5 new covering: mid-merge is WEDGED not DIRTY; abandoned reports no hand resolution; hand-resolved warns against aborting; a paused rebase reports rebase-shaped remedies and survives the detached HEAD it creates; --prune never offers a WEDGED tree however merged it looks).

Docs added to CLAUDE.md (full section) and AGENTS.md (pointer at the "is this someone's live work?" decision point).

A worktree paused mid-merge presents to every tool here as nothing more than "N dirty", which is indistinguishable from a session editing right now. Nothing in src/lib or scripts read MERGE_HEAD, rebase-merge, or CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, so the state had no name and no age. The cost is not hypothetical: an abandoned merge on docs/cave-zs85n-chat-sidebar-attention stalled 2026-08-07 and survived until 2026-08-10 because each session that found its 137 dirty paths read them as a colleague's in-flight work and correctly declined to clobber them. Backing off was the right call every time; the missing information was whether anyone was actually still there. Add a WEDGED verdict to the local worktree dashboard that detects the paused operation, dates it from the marker's mtime, lists the unresolved paths, and answers the question backing off leaves open: compare every dirty path's mtime against the moment the operation stalled. Nothing touched since means no hand resolution exists to lose, so the tree is raw merge output the two parents reproduce; anything touched since means a human is mid-resolution and the report says do NOT abort. An unreadable tree fails closed to the same warning, because "nobody touched it" is the fact an abort decision leans on. Retention is reported alongside, network-free, so an abort is only ever called lossless when both sides are reachable from a remote-tracking ref or tag; otherwise the archive-tag command prints instead. WEDGED outranks every other verdict and is never SAFE-RETIRE, so neither --prune nor wt:retire-on-exit can remove a tree with unfinished work in it. Verified against the real wedged worktree: the tool independently reproduces the manual forensics — 5 conflicts, zero hand resolution, both parents retained, abort lossless.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Warning

Copilot couldn't run its full agentic review because it didn't start before the timeout. Make sure your repository has a runner available, or add a copilot-code-review.yml file specifying one with the runs-on attribute. See the docs for more details.

Adds a new WEDGED verdict to worktree-status so unfinished git operations (merge/rebase/cherry-pick/revert/bisect) are detected, aged, and given actionable remediation guidance—preventing abandoned paused operations from being mistaken as “someone’s live dirty work”.

Changes:

Detect in-progress git operations via per-worktree git-dir markers and surface them as WEDGED (with age, conflicted paths, and “touched since stall” analysis).
Update human output ordering/formatting and add a detailed wedge remedy block (including retention hints).
Add node test coverage for WEDGED behavior (merge + rebase scenarios) and document pnpm wt:status usage in agent docs.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
scripts/worktree-status.mjs	Implements WEDGED detection, sorting precedence, and human remedy output.
scripts/worktree-status.test.mjs	Adds fixtures/tests for merge- and rebase-based wedged worktrees and `--prune` behavior.
CLAUDE.md	Documents `pnpm wt:status` and explains the WEDGED verdict semantics.
AGENTS.md	Adds a workflow pointer to run `pnpm wt:status` before assuming dirtiness is live work.

💡 Add a code-review agent skill or configure MCP servers for context-aware, tailored reviews. Learn more in the docs.

Copilot · 2026-08-10T12:49:43Z

+  process.stdout.write(`   finish it:  cd ${shq(row.path)} && git ${w.op === "rebase" ? "rebase --continue" : "commit"}\n`);
+  process.stdout.write(
+    `   or drop it: cd ${shq(row.path)} && git ${w.op === "bisect" ? "bisect reset" : `${w.op} --abort`}` +
+      `${handResolved ? "   ← only with the owner's say-so" : ""}\n`,
+  );


Addressed in 403f200.

Copilot · 2026-08-10T12:49:49Z

+  const scan = (res) => {
+    if (!res.ok) return { count: 0, newest: null, readable: false };
+    let count = 0;
+    let newest = null;
+    for (const rel of res.out.split("\0").filter(Boolean)) {
+      const at = mtimeMs(path.join(wtPath, rel));
+      if (at === null || at <= cutoff) continue;
+      count += 1;
+      if (!newest || at > newest.atMs) newest = { path: rel, atMs: at, at: new Date(at).toISOString() };
+    }
+    return { count, newest, readable: true };
+  };


Addressed in 403f200.

Copilot · 2026-08-10T12:49:54Z

+const OPERATION_MARKERS = [
+  { marker: "rebase-merge", op: "rebase" },
+  { marker: "rebase-apply", op: "rebase" },
+  { marker: "MERGE_HEAD", op: "merge" },
+  { marker: "CHERRY_PICK_HEAD", op: "cherry-pick" },
+  { marker: "REVERT_HEAD", op: "revert" },
+  { marker: "BISECT_LOG", op: "bisect" },
+];


Addressed in 403f200.

Co-authored-by: BunsDev <68980965+BunsDev@users.noreply.github.com>

BunsDev · 2026-08-10T14:14:54Z

Triage: this PR is not broken — it's blocked by a break on main.

The only failing check is iOS build:

apps/ios/CovenCave/CovenCave/Views/ConnectionView.swift:390:9: error: switch must be exhaustive

This branch does not touch apps/ios at all (git diff --stat origin/main...HEAD -- apps/ios/ is empty). AppModel.DiscoveryOutcome gained a credentialFailure(String) case on main without ConnectionView being updated.

Fix is up as #4510, verified with a real local xcodebuild: main fails, the fix builds. Once that lands, rebase or re-run and this should go green.

Context for why it appeared here at all: the iOS job no longer runs on pull requests (it moved to release.yml), so it only surfaced because this PR's CI came from a workflow_dispatch recovery run, which builds unconditionally.

Copilot AI lite review requested due to automatic review settings August 10, 2026 11:08

BunsDev self-assigned this Aug 10, 2026

BunsDev added 2 commits August 10, 2026 06:08

Merge branch 'main' into fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

8e318d1

Merge branch 'main' into fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

e7d647d

Copilot AI reviewed Aug 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of BunsDev August 10, 2026 11:28 View session

BunsDev added 2 commits August 10, 2026 06:48

Merge branch 'main' into fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

547dcb6

Merge branch 'main' into fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

a01e0be

Copilot started work on behalf of BunsDev August 10, 2026 12:42 View session

fix worktree-status review feedback

403f200

Co-authored-by: BunsDev <68980965+BunsDev@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of BunsDev August 10, 2026 12:50

Copilot started work on behalf of BunsDev August 10, 2026 13:11 View session

Copilot finished work on behalf of BunsDev August 10, 2026 13:14

Merge branch 'main' into fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

48a3a24

BunsDev merged commit 185420d into main Aug 10, 2026
1 check passed

BunsDev deleted the fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection branch August 10, 2026 14:54

Navigation Menu

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

feat(worktree): name worktrees wedged in an abandoned merge - #4499

feat(worktree): name worktrees wedged in an abandoned merge#4499
BunsDev merged 7 commits into
mainfrom
fix/cave-97svy-wedged-worktree-detection

BunsDev commented Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

BunsDev commented Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Conversation

BunsDev commented Aug 10, 2026

The signal

Root cause

The fix

Verification

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Aug 10, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

BunsDev commented Aug 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants