Finishing A Development Branch

---
name: finishing-a-development-branch
description: Use after implementation to verify acceptance, review coverage, and local Git closeout.
---

# Finishing a Development Branch

Read applicable instructions, Approval Policy, and exact current policy-accepted
spec/plan and optional Foundation evidence from disk. Confirm all planned tasks
are complete and their recorded ranges match Git history.

Read [product-evolution.md](../using-superpowers/references/product-evolution.md)
and compare the authoritative current work/outcome selection to exact bindings,
including after resume, compaction, rebind or possible owner change. Stop affected
closeout for ambiguous, partial or stale pairs. Preserve accepted history; any
needed design/plan correction uses distinct reviewed successors under policy,
quiescent selection and regenerated bindings before divergent work resumes.

Use `verification-before-completion` to check the bounded goal, acceptance
criteria, Architecture Conformance, and applicable integrated test/build evidence.
Use `requesting-code-review` for final whole-branch review ownership. Reuse an
existing final review only when its exact source and artifact coverage is
unchanged; fixes or changed requirements require affected re-review. Repair
in-scope findings under Autonomous without a human gate. Review-gated applies
only when authoritative content changes.

Inspect the working tree, index, physical checkout, branch, and commits. Keep
local-only instructions and `docs/superpowers/**` unstaged unless explicitly
requested. Preserve untracked and ignored user work.

Report the result, commits, meaningful changes, verification, acceptance gaps,
risks, ignored artifacts, and actual source/installed-runtime limitations.
Include production lines added, deleted and net; module count/change and
fan-out; persistent schema versions and semantic compatibility paths;
focused/full verification durations with comparable commands/environment and
coverage differences; named concepts and budget verdict. Unavailable measures
need reasons and cannot pass. Keep Markdown volume separate from production.

Report retired contracts/tests, retained coverage and remaining temporary
cleanup across production, tests, fixtures, docs and formats. Expired mechanisms
block reliance until reviewed removal or fresh-evidence successor renewal;
never silently delete live support/data. Apply all shared rubric verdicts and
its five subtraction questions. Keeping existing code is valid when evidence
supports it; a line quota never overrides safety or current obligations. Detailed
measurements stay in ignored records. Recheck DOX owners/indexes and explain intentionally
unchanged docs.

Default closeout is local and summary-only. Approval Policy does not grant
authority for push, merge, PR creation, deployment, release, spending, messages
to others, destructive cleanup, stash, or discarding work. Complete external
actions already authorized by the user after their applicable checks; ask only
for authority that is actually missing. Do not introduce a routine action menu.