Unfuck My Git State

**Judgement:** This skill is a well-structured, safety-first toolkit for rescuing Git repositories from broken HEAD/refs and worktree metadata problems. It’s best suited to intermediate and advanced Git users who need a disciplined alternative to “randomly trying commands” when a repo is in a bad state. **What it does well** - Provides a **clear, staged recovery flow**: take a snapshot, route by symptom, generate a non-destructive plan, apply the smallest matching playbook, then verify. - Covers several **high-pain failure modes** explicitly: orphaned worktrees, phantom branch locks, detached or contradictory HEAD, and missing/broken refs. - Emphasizes **data safety** with backups, non-destructive commands first, and a verification checklist including `git status`, `git symbolic-ref`, `git worktree list`, and `git fsck`. - Includes a **regression harness** and automation hooks, which is a strong signal of reliability and suitability for scripted or CI environments. **Key risks and limitations** - Still a **power tool**: misuse or skipping the backup/verification steps can lead to data loss, especially when force-updating branches or editing `.git` internals. - Assumes comfort with the command line and Git internals (refs, worktrees, reflog), so it’s not ideal for beginners. - Heavy operations like `git fsck` and full `git fetch --all --prune` can be slow on very large repositories. **Recommended scenarios** - Your repo shows **detached or contradictory HEAD** and you need to recover without losing unpushed work. - You see **phantom worktree entries or branch lock errors** when deleting or switching branches. - Git reports **unknown revision / not a valid object name / cannot lock ref**, and you need a safe way to re-anchor branch pointers. - You maintain scripts or bots that manage worktrees/branches and want a **guard-railed recovery path** and regression tests for when they misbehave.