Claude (via Claude Code, or Cowork with shell access) can run git commands directly and handle much of the day-to-day workflow around commits, branches, and PRs. ## What Claude can do - Write commit messages by reading the actual diff (`git diff`, `git status`, `git log`) rather than guessing — worth asking for this explicitly so the message reflects real changes. - Create and switch branches, stage files, commit, push. - Open and review pull requests (via `gh` CLI if installed). - Resolve merge conflicts by reading both sides of the conflict and proposing a merged version. - Search history — find when a line was introduced (`git blame`), find a commit that broke something (`git bisect`), or summarize what changed between tags. - Undo mistakes — revert a commit, reset a branch, recover a dropped stash. ## Good practices - Ask Claude to run `git status` and `git diff` before committing so you can confirm what's actually being staged. - For commit messages, ask Claude to base them only on the diff, not on your description of intent — avoids messages that describe what you meant rather than what changed. - Have Claude show the diff of a fix before committing, especially for anything destructive (rebase, force-push, reset --hard). - For PRs, ask for a summary of changes plus a "how to test" section — Claude can generate both from the diff and commit history. ## Guardrails worth setting - Tell Claude not to force-push or rewrite shared/published history without asking first. - Tell Claude not to commit directly to main/master if your workflow uses feature branches. - For anything irreversible (deleting branches, hard resets, `git clean -fd`), ask Claude to show you what will be affected before running it. ## Useful patterns - "Show me the diff, then write a commit message" — review before commit. - "What changed between v1.2 and v1.3?" — changelog generation from `git log`. - "Find the commit that introduced this bug" — bisect-style investigation. - "Resolve these merge conflicts, explain each choice" — conflict resolution with reasoning, not silent overwrites.