Complete and merge development branches with test verification

This skill guides the completion of development work once implementation is finished and all tests pass. It presents a small set of structured options for how to integrate the work (merge, pull request, keep, or discard) and then carries out the chosen workflow. Its core principle is: verify tests, present options, execute the choice, clean up. The assistant announces at the start that it is using the finishing-a-development-branch skill to complete the work.

The process has five steps:

1. Verify tests. Run the project's test suite. If tests fail, report the number of failures, show them, state that merge or pull request cannot proceed until tests pass, and stop.
2. Determine the base branch by looking for a merge base with main or master, or ask the user to confirm. Then read AGENTS.md and maintainer documentation and inspect the effective protection on the base branch. If pull requests or required checks are enforced, local merge is marked unavailable and the repository's guarded workflow is used. In the agentic-awesome-skills repository, maintainer merges are deferred to the antigravity-maintainer-batch-release skill and the npm run merge:batch command.
3. Present options. For an unprotected base branch, present exactly four concise options with no added explanation: merge back locally, push and create a pull request, keep the branch as-is, or discard the work. For a protected base branch, do not offer local merge.
4. Execute the choice.
5. Clean up the worktree.

Use it when implementation is complete, all tests pass, and you need to decide how to integrate the work.

Do not use it while tests are failing, because the skill stops at step 1. Do not use it to force a local merge into a protected branch: local merge is only allowed after proving that repository policy and server-side protection permit it, otherwise the flow routes through the pull request option. The skill is marked critical risk in its metadata, and its limits say not to treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation or expert review.

Inputs are a finished feature branch, the project's test command, and the user's choice among the options. Outputs depend on the choice. Merge locally switches to the base branch, pulls the latest, merges the feature branch, verifies tests on the merged result, and deletes the feature branch. Push and create a pull request pushes the branch and opens a pull request with a short summary of what changed and a test plan checklist. Keep as-is reports the branch name and worktree path and does not clean up the worktree. Discard first requires a typed confirmation of the word discard, after a warning listing the branch, its commits, and the worktree, and only then force-deletes the branch.

To use the pull request path, the skill pushes with:

git push -u origin <feature-branch>

The skill relies on git, git worktrees, and the GitHub command line for pull requests. It is called by the subagent-driven-development skill after all tasks complete and by the executing-plans skill after all batches complete. It pairs with using-git-worktrees, cleaning up the worktree that skill created. Worktrees are removed for options 1, 2, and 4 only as the skill specifies; the quick reference keeps the worktree for the pull request and keep options.

Red flags the skill lists: never proceed with failing tests, merge without verifying tests on the result, delete work without confirmation, or force-push without an explicit request. Always present exactly four options and get typed confirmation before discarding.

It is for developers and coding agents who finish feature branches and want a consistent, safe close-out routine that avoids merging broken code, skipping confirmation before deleting work, or cleaning up worktrees that are still needed.