Read the state: git status --short --branch, git diff --cached --stat, git diff --stat, git log -5 --oneline, git worktree list, git stash list (three states).
Confirm that the user authorized this operation (commit, rewrite, push, tag). "Commit the changes" does not authorize a push or a rewrite.
Protect work before risky operations: a recovery branch for rewrites, stash push -u or a commit for dirty files (recovery ref).
Find the repository's hooks, commit message policy, and merge or rebase policy.
Perform the operation with the narrowest command from the cards.
Verify: status and diffs again, git show --stat HEAD, write-tree versus HEAD^{tree} where hooks run, and the checks for the committed slice.
Report the resulting refs and state, and anything left (stashes, recovery branches, worktrees).

Route the task to a card

Task	Card
Commit some of the current changes	Stage exact paths, one hunk
File has staged and unstaged edits	commit --only trap
Hooks run on commit	Existing hooks, hooks change snapshot, write-tree
Several changes in the tree	Commit slices
Writing the message	Message policy
Fix an earlier unpublished commit	Fixup and autosquash, amend
Clear the tree temporarily	Stash
Bring in another branch	Merge policies, rebase
Conflict during rebase	Conflict sides
Backport a fix	Cherry-pick -x
Undo a published change or merge	Revert
Unstage, uncommit, discard	Reset and restore
Commits lost after reset or rebase	Reflog
Work on another commit in parallel	Worktrees
Tag a release	Annotated tags, publishing tags
Push, or push a rewritten branch	Pushing, force-with-lease

Rules

Never discard uncommitted work (reset --hard, restore, checkout -- ., clean -f, stash drop) without the user's go-ahead for that action.
Stage named paths; never git add -A in a tree with unrelated changes.
Do not bypass hooks (--no-verify) or change core.hooksPath.
Rewrite (amend, rebase, reset of pushed commits) only when authorized. Publish a rewrite only with --force-with-lease=REF:EXPECTED; a bare --force-with-lease compares against the remote-tracking ref, which a background fetch can update.
During a rebase, --ours is the upstream side and --theirs is the commit being replayed.
git commit PATH commits the path's worktree content, not its staged hunks.
Do not move an existing release tag; report the conflict.

Bundled tools

assets/examples/verify.sh: one scenario per card operation, in repositories under a temporary directory with isolated Git config.
scripts/test_commit_snapshots.py: tests for index preservation and snapshot identity with partial staging and hooks.

References

Staging and commits: three states, exact paths, hunk staging, the --only trap, write-tree, hooks, slices, message policy, fixups, amend.
History and recovery: recovery refs, stash, merge, rebase sides, cherry-pick, revert, reset/restore table, reflog, worktrees.
Tags and publishing: annotated tags, pushes, force-with-lease, tag publication.

Completion evidence

The report lists the operations run, the resulting git log --oneline for affected refs, git status --short afterwards, each commit's --stat and the checks run on it, and any stash, recovery branch, worktree, or unpushed commit left behind.

manage-git-changes

Manage Git Changes

Workflow