/merge-release-to-dev — Merge the release branch forward

Nothing merges release/* into dev automatically. The team does it by hand, pushing a Merge release/vX.Y into dev commit straight to dev — no pull request. /cherry-pick-to-release does it as its last step, but only when it picked something, so a fix committed directly to the release branch waits for whoever merges next. Until then it is not on dev, and a Closes #N in its message closes nothing: GitHub acts on closing keywords only when the commit reaches the default branch, dev.

Arguments

• none — merge and push.
• --dry-run — steps 1–2 only: report what dev is missing and stop.

Invoking this skill is the permission to push dev

The standing rule is never to push unless the user asked in that message. Running this skill is that ask: merge and push without re-confirming. It never pushes the release branch (that triggers a release build) and never force-pushes.

Reuse

• Release branch discovery is /cherry-pick-to-release step 2 (.claude/commands/cherry-pick-to-release.md): the highest origin/release/v*, sanity-checked against version.json.
• The version.json conflict rule is the one /cherry-pick-to-release step 7 and /prepare-release use: keep dev's side.

Steps

1. Find the release branch

git fetch origin --prune
git branch -r --format='%(refname:short)' \
  | grep -E '^origin/release/v[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?$' \
  | sed 's#^origin/release/v##' | sort -V | tail -1

That X.Y gives release/vX.Y. Work from origin/release/vX.Y and origin/dev, never from the local branches: the local dev may be stale or checked out in another worktree.

If a local release/vX.Y exists and is ahead of origin, those commits would be left out:

git rev-parse -q --verify refs/heads/release/vX.Y \
  && git rev-list --count origin/release/vX.Y..release/vX.Y

A count above 0 means unpushed commits. Show them and ask via AskUserQuestion: Merge origin only or Stop (the user pushes them first — pushing the release branch is not this skill's call).

2. List what dev is missing

git log --no-merges --reverse --format='%h%x09%an%x09%ad%x09%s' --date=format:'%m-%d %H:%M' \
  origin/dev..origin/release/vX.Y

Empty → say dev already has everything on release/vX.Y and stop.

Otherwise print a table, oldest first, with a Kind column:

• copy — the body has (cherry picked from commit <sha>): the original is already on dev, and the merge only records it.
• new — no trailer: committed straight to the release branch. These are the ones that reach dev for the first time.

Then list the issues the merge will close:

git log --format=%B origin/dev..origin/release/vX.Y \
  | grep -oiE "^(close[sd]?|fix(e[sd])?|resolve[sd]?) #[0-9]+" | grep -oE '[0-9]+' | sort -u

Commits by other people go too — a merge forward takes the whole branch. Say whose they are; that is expected, not a reason to stop.

--dry-run stops here.

3. Merge in a temporary worktree

The merge happens in a throwaway worktree on a detached origin/dev, so the current checkout — its branch, its uncommitted changes — is never touched, and nothing needs a clean tree or a stash. Put it in the scratchpad (or tmp/):

W=<scratchpad>/merge-release
git worktree add --detach "$W" origin/dev
git -C "$W" merge --no-ff origin/release/vX.Y -m "Merge release/vX.Y into dev"

A version.json conflict (release has X.Y, dev the next -alpha) — keep dev's side:

git -C "$W" checkout --ours version.json && git -C "$W" add version.json
git -C "$W" commit --no-edit

Any other conflict: capture git -C "$W" diff --name-only --diff-filter=U, then git -C "$W" merge --abort, remove the worktree (step 5), show the files and ask. Don't resolve content conflicts on a guess.

4. Push

git -C "$W" push origin HEAD:dev

Rejected as non-fast-forward → someone pushed dev meanwhile. Redo from a fresh base once — the merge commit lives only on the worktree's detached HEAD, so nothing is lost:

git -C "$W" fetch origin dev
git -C "$W" switch --detach origin/dev
git -C "$W" merge --no-ff origin/release/vX.Y -m "Merge release/vX.Y into dev"
git -C "$W" push origin HEAD:dev

Rejected again → stop and report. Never --force.

5. Clean up

git worktree remove "$W"
git fetch origin dev:dev 2>/dev/null || true

The second line fast-forwards a local dev when it can; it refuses, harmlessly, when dev is the current branch, is checked out elsewhere or has local commits.

6. Report

Merged release/v2.22 into dev (a1b2c3d4e5, clean) and pushed dev:

  new   f173c72546  Frol  fix(ios): turn CallKit off on the China storefront
  new   d327a910a9  Frol  fix(ios-share): move the share extension to the app's RPC endpoint

Issues closed by the merge: #5520 (closed).

For each issue from step 2, check gh issue view <N> --json state --jq .state. GitHub closes it within seconds of the push. Still OPEN → say so, and note that it may need a manual close if the keyword was malformed. If you stopped early, say where and what state the repo is in.