git-safety

Git Safety Skill

Purpose

Prevent accidental commits of raw data, sensitive metadata, local environment details, secrets, logs, or large artifacts.

Apply This Skill When

• Preparing a commit.
• Staging files.
• Reviewing git status.
• Reviewing git diff.
• Pushing changes.
• Writing commit summaries.

Non-Negotiable Rules

• Never use git add ..
• Stage files explicitly.
• Do not commit raw data.
• Do not commit unsanitized metadata.
• Do not commit .env, secrets, tokens, credentials.
• Do not commit local DB/cache/log files.
• Do not commit Spark temp files.
• Do not commit notebook checkpoints.
• Do not commit model artifacts unless explicitly approved.
• Do not commit row-level samples.

Expected Safe Files

Usually safe to commit:

• AGENTS.md
• PLAN.md
• README.md
• docs/project_report.md
• jobs/*.py
• jobs/README.md
• .gitignore
• sanitized small metadata artifacts such as artifacts/metadata/raw_data_summary.json

Only commit metadata if it is sanitized and small.

Files/Folders to Exclude

Do not stage:

• data/raw/
• data/processed/
• data/serving/
• .env
• .env.*
• logs/
• *.db
• *.sqlite
• *.parquet
• *.csv if it contains row-level data
• Spark temp directories
• model artifacts
• cache folders

Required Commands

Before staging:

git status --short
git diff

Stage explicitly, for example:

git add AGENTS.md
git add PLAN.md
git add docs/project_report.md
git add jobs/00_inspect_raw_data.py
git add jobs/README.md
git add README.md
git add .gitignore
git add artifacts/metadata/raw_data_summary.json

Before commit:

git diff --cached --name-only
git diff --cached

Search for unsafe metadata:

grep -R "absolute_path\|project_root\|raw_data_dir" AGENTS.md PLAN.md README.md docs jobs artifacts/metadata || true
grep -R "drive-letter paths" AGENTS.md PLAN.md README.md docs jobs artifacts/metadata || true

PowerShell equivalent:

Select-String -Path AGENTS.md,PLAN.md,README.md,docs/project_report.md,jobs/*.py,jobs/README.md,artifacts/metadata/*.json -Pattern "absolute_path|project_root|raw_data_dir"

Commit Message Rule

Use short, specific commit messages, for example:

git commit -m "chore: add agent guardrails and project tracking"

Definition of Done

A commit is safe when:

• only explicit files are staged
• no raw data is staged
• no secrets are staged
• no absolute paths or local environment details are staged
• metadata artifacts are sanitized
• git diff --cached has been reviewed