Handbook

Charge — F2 / Branch Steward contract and decision tree

Pack: branching · Preamble: Cursor preamble for the ForgeSDLC branching charges · Next: Charge 05

Define the workflow persona that turns Charge state into Git actions inside Cursor.

Branch context

  • Open or confirm iter/F2-PS-BRANCH-01
  • Parent branch remains product/PS-BRANCH-01-forge-branching-orchestration only if the policy enabled it
  • This Charge defines the agent behavior before you build the Cursor rule

Active Sparks

# Spark ID Phase Intent Git lane Status
1 M2E2S1T1 specify: Define Branch Steward inputs, outputs, session location, and supported verbs such as open-iteration, start-spark, bank-spark, resume-spark, prepare-review, and backmerge-hotfix. iter/F2-PS-BRANCH-01 planned
2 M2E2S1T2 design: Create the decision tree for when a Spark stays on iter/* versus when it opens a dedicated spark/* branch. iter/F2-PS-BRANCH-01 planned
3 M2E2S1T3 design: Define how forge/charge.md will reference branch and worktree state without becoming a parallel tracker or a new branch class. iter/F2-PS-BRANCH-01 planned
4 M2E2S1T4 specify: Define mandatory Ember Log triggers for branch creation, banking, merge exceptions, hotfixes, and policy overrides. iter/F2-PS-BRANCH-01 planned

Branch Steward in-time actions

  1. Create or check out the F2 iteration branch from the policy-approved parent layer.
  2. Write the decision tree so Cursor can choose the lane without asking the user on every Spark.
  3. Keep Charge lightweight: it may point to a branch or worktree, but it must not duplicate Git history or issue tracking.
  4. Prompt for Engineering review if the contract would let the agent rewrite protected history.

Expected outputs

  • forge/personas/branch-steward.md or .cursor/rules/branch-steward-contract.md
  • a decision tree for Spark branch creation
  • a minimal charge annotation convention for branch or worktree references

Exit criteria

  • the Branch Steward role is concrete enough to implement
  • the Spark lane decision tree is deterministic enough for Cursor
  • Ember Log triggers are explicit

Blockers

Spark Blocker Action

Banking decisions

Spark Reason banked Restart context

Notes

  • Use the Ember Log for non-trivial branch decisions, policy exceptions, and any risk accepted during this Charge.