Sync Before Work

Sync Before Reading

• At the start of any task that will read or modify a repo, sync the local checkout with the remote default branch
• Run git fetch origin before the first read — not after the first failure
• The default branch you start from must match what the remote currently has, not whatever the local clone was left at
• hooks/check-git-sync.sh fetches at session start and fast-forwards a clean checked-out default branch that is strictly behind
• A standalone agent or a Herdr lead syncs any drift the hook reports instead
• A Herdr worker only reports that drift, never syncs it (rules/agent-team-operation.md Workers)

Land on the Fresh Default

• On the default branch: fast-forward to origin/<default>
• Local default diverged or stale: rebase or reset onto origin/<default> before branching
• Cut the feature branch from the synced default, never from a stale local tip

Staleness Poisons Conclusions

• Local default behind origin/<default> by more than a trivial amount: treat every "this file looks like X" conclusion as suspect until re-derived against the fresh tree
• An issue naming files, skills, or steps absent from the local tree is a staleness tell — fetch and re-derive before mapping the work onto what you see

Working Against a Pinned Ref

• Narrow exception for starting work from a specific older ref instead of the fresh default.
• Preconditions (all required):
  1. The user explicitly names the older ref or commit to work against
  2. You state you are starting from that pinned ref rather than origin/<default>
• Every other task starts from the synced remote default