Patch

Intent

Carve changes into surgical git patch files: one coherent change, minimal blast radius, and at least one feedback signal before exporting.

This skill treats a patch as a transport artifact (a context-sensitive diff), not a magical commutative "merge atom". The goal is to make patches small, reviewable, and maximally likely to apply cleanly.

Mental model (why this is harder than it looks)

• A git patch file is a procedure over a base: it is not commutative, not associative, and not idempotent in general.
• Patch-based VCSes (Darcs/Pijul) work hard to make patch application order-independent; git-style patches don't promise that.
• Therefore: always be explicit about the intended base (usually HEAD), keep patches tiny, and validate against a clean base.

When to use

• "Split this into micro patches."
• "Stage only the minimal change and make a patch file."
• "Keep the patch tiny, keep checks passing."