undo-work

undo-work

Safely undo work when an implementation attempt has gone wrong. Provides structured rollback with safeguards against accidental data loss.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

1. Assess Current State

git status
git log --oneline -10
git stash list

Determine the situation:

• Uncommitted changes only → Soft or hard reset options
• One or more commits on feature branch → Revert commits or reset branch
• Mid-story-cycle → Full story rollback

Present findings to the user before proceeding.

2. Confirm Scope with User

Show the user:

• Files that will be affected (list modified/added/deleted files)
• Commits that will be reverted (if any)
• Whether there's uncommitted work at risk

Ask the user to confirm one of these rollback levels:

3. Execute Rollback

Soft (stash)

git stash push -m "undo-work: <user-provided reason or auto-description>"

Report: "Changes stashed. Use git stash pop to recover if needed."

Hard (discard uncommitted)

git diff --stat          # Show what will be lost — confirm with user
git stash push --include-untracked -m "undo-work: <user-provided reason>"
git stash drop           # Discard the stash (changes intentionally discarded)

This captures both tracked changes AND untracked files into a stash, achieving a clean working directory. If the user changes their mind before the drop, git stash pop recovers everything.

Story (reset branch to before story commits)

1. Check for story-cycle checkpoint tags first:

git tag -l 'story-checkpoint-*'

If a checkpoint tag exists, prefer it as the rollback target — it was set by story-cycle Phase 3.pre at the exact point before implementation began.

2. If no checkpoint tag exists, identify the commit where the story started:

git log --oneline main..HEAD

3. Show the user exactly which commits will be removed (or that a checkpoint tag was found).
4. After confirmation:

If checkpoint tag exists:

git stash push --include-untracked -m "undo-work: story rollback backup"
git reset --soft <checkpoint-tag>
git restore .
git tag -d <checkpoint-tag>

If no checkpoint tag (fall back to commit-based):

git reset --soft <commit-before-story>    # Keep changes staged (safest)

<IF>User wants a clean slate (not just unstaged)</IF>

git stash push --include-untracked -m "undo-work: story rollback backup"
git reset --soft <commit-before-story>
git restore .

4. Verify Clean State

git status
git log --oneline -5

Confirm the working directory is in the expected state.

5. Document (Optional)

<IF>The failed attempt has useful learnings</IF>

Suggest the user note what went wrong in the current session context so the next attempt avoids the same pitfalls. Do NOT auto-create documentation files.

Rules

• NEVER execute destructive git commands without showing the user exactly what will be affected and getting explicit confirmation
• NEVER force push after a reset — the rollback is local only
• Always prefer git stash --include-untracked (recoverable) over destructive alternatives. Use git restore . for discarding tracked file changes, git reset --soft for undoing commits while keeping changes staged
• If on main branch, REFUSE to reset — only feature/sprint branches
• If there are commits that have already been pushed to remote, WARN the user that local reset won't affect the remote