home / skills / arjenschwarz / agentic-coding / catchup

catchup skill

This skill summarizes branch changes by identifying base branch, summarizing commits, listing changed files, and explaining rationale behind edits.

npx playbooks add skill arjenschwarz/agentic-coding --skill catchup

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SKILL.md

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---
name: catchup
description: Catch Up on Branch Changes
---

# Catch Up on Branch Changes

You need to help me understand what work has been done on this branch. Please:

1. Get the current branch name
2. Identify the base branch (usually 'main' or 'master')
3. Get a summary of commits since branching
4. List all changed files (added, modified, deleted)
5. Read through the changed files to understand:
   - What features were added
   - What bugs were fixed
   - What refactoring was done
   - Any important architectural changes
6. Provide a clear summary organized by:
   - Overall purpose of the changes
   - Key files and their changes
   - Notable patterns or themes
   - Any concerns or areas that might need attention

Focus on understanding the "why" behind changes, not just listing what changed. Be concise but thorough.

Overview

This skill helps you quickly understand what changed on a feature branch and why those changes were made. It inspects branch metadata, summarizes commits, reviews changed files, and produces a focused narrative about features, fixes, refactors, and architectural shifts. The output is organized for fast onboarding or review handoff.

How this skill works

It determines the current branch and identifies the base branch (commonly main or master). It gathers commits since the branch point, enumerates added/modified/deleted files, and reads the affected files to infer intent: new features, bug fixes, refactors, and architecture changes. Finally, it produces a structured summary that highlights purpose, key files, notable patterns, and potential risks or follow-ups.

When to use it

Before code review to get context on a branch quickly
When picking up work from a colleague or returning to your own branch after time away
Prior to merging to identify blockers or risky changes
During release prep to understand feature scope and regressions
When documenting a change log or writing release notes

Best practices

Use a clean local history (rebase/squash) so commit summaries are meaningful
Create descriptive commit messages to ease intent detection
Keep changes focused per branch to reduce noise in file-level analysis
Flag or annotate large architectural changes in PR descriptions for clarity
Run tests and include test changes so impact is verifiable

Example use cases

Summarize a feature branch to write a concise PR description
Onboard a reviewer with a short narrative of why and how changes were made
Identify risky files or areas needing additional tests before merge
Extract bullet points for release notes from commits and modified files
Detect unexpected deletions or refactors that may affect other modules

FAQ

Can this skill detect the branch base automatically?

Yes — it looks for common base names (main/master) and falls back to the merge-base with the remote if needed.

How does it infer the intent behind code changes?

It combines commit messages, diffs, and code context to categorize changes as features, fixes, refactors, or architectural updates.

Will it run tests or check CI status?

It does not run tests by default but will note test file changes and recommend running CI when it detects risky or wide-ranging changes.