Branches and commits

Branching

Run /branch <description> in a session to start a branch for the work. The agent turns the description into a short name and branches off the latest remote default branch, so the branch starts from what everyone else has merged rather than from a stale local copy.

Branch names follow [<prefix>/][<JIRA>-]<slug>, such as sw/BAD-671-add-login-form:

Pass --jira <KEY> to put a Jira key in the name. In a backlog run, the item’s linked Jira key is used.
Set a prefix, such as your initials, to keep your branches together:
Terminal window
```
assist config set branch.prefix sw
```
Branches come off the remote’s default branch. To branch off another one instead:
Terminal window
```
assist config set branch.defaultBranch develop
```

Branches for backlog items

Running a backlog item puts it on its own branch, named after the item, and later phases carry on on that branch. To run items on whatever branch the session is already on:

assist config set prs.required false

Committing

Run /commit to commit what the session changed. The agent commits only the files that belong to the session’s work, leaving anything else in the working tree alone, with a short message in the repo’s style.

These settings shape every commit made through assist:

Key	Effect
`commit.conventional`	Messages must use conventional commit prefixes such as `feat:` and `fix:`
`commit.pull`	Pulls before committing
`commit.push`	Pushes after committing
`commit.expectedBranch`	Warns when committing on any branch but this one, such as `main`

assist config set commit.conventional true
assist config set commit.push true