Developer Resources

Conflict Resolution

Preventing Conflicts

Best practices:

1. Pull from main frequently (at least daily)
2. Keep feature branches short-lived (< 1 week ideal)
3. Communicate when working on shared files
4. Break large features into smaller PRs

Resolving Merge Conflicts

When conflicts occur:

# Update the feature branch with main
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout feature/your-feature
git merge main

# Git will mark conflicts in files
# Open conflicted files and resolve manually
# Look for conflict markers: <<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>

# After resolving all conflicts
git add .
git commit -m "merge: resolve conflicts with main"
git push origin feature/your-feature

Conflict resolution strategy:

1. 1.Understand both changes - what was each trying to do?
2. 2.Preserve both intentions when possible
3. 3.Test thoroughly after resolving
4. 4.Ask the other developer if uncertain
5. 5.Request re-review of PR after conflict resolution

Large Conflicts

If there are many conflicts:

• Consider rebasing instead of merging (discuss with team first)
• Pair with another developer to resolve together
• May indicate feature branch was too long-lived