Index

Mobius Branch Strategy¶

EPICON-compliant branching — intent encoded in branch names.

Branch Structure¶

That's it. Three active branches plus tags for releases.

Philosophy¶

main — The Cathedral¶

The main branch is the cathedral. Only merged, reviewed, EPICON-approved code lives here.

• Never work directly on main
• All changes come through PRs from working branches
• Protected by branch protection rules
• Requires passing CI + GI gate (≥ 0.95)

claude/atlas — Anthropic Sessions¶

When working with Claude (Anthropic), development happens here.

• Named for ATLAS — the primary Anthropic sentinel
• Claude sessions push to this branch
• PR to main when work is ready for review
• Audit trail: commits here were made under ATLAS oversight

cursor/aurea — Cursor Agents¶

When Cursor background agents work, they push here.

• Named for AUREA — the integrity sentinel (OpenAI-based)
• Cursor background tasks use this branch
• PR to main when work is complete
• Audit trail: commits here were made under AUREA oversight

Version Tags¶

Use git tag v0.2.0 rather than branches for releases.

• Tags are immutable pointers
• Branches imply ongoing work
• Tags create clean release history

Naming Convention¶

The {tool}/{sentinel} pattern encodes:

1. Who did the work (which AI system)
2. What governance applies (which sentinel reviews)

This creates natural audit trails: - Commits on claude/atlas → Claude sessions under ATLAS oversight - Commits on cursor/aurea → Cursor agents under AUREA oversight

Branch Lifecycle¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         main                                 │
│                    (production)                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
          ▲                              ▲
          │ PR + Review                  │ PR + Review
          │                              │
┌─────────┴─────────┐          ┌────────┴────────┐
│   claude/atlas    │          │   cursor/aurea  │
│  (Claude work)    │          │  (Cursor work)  │
└───────────────────┘          └─────────────────┘

Feature Branches (Optional)¶

For specific features, use descriptive sub-branches:

claude/atlas/feature-name
cursor/aurea/fix-description

These merge back to their parent working branch first, then to main.

Configuration¶

Cursor Background Agents¶

Configure Cursor to use cursor/aurea by default for background tasks:

1. In Cursor settings, configure the default branch for Cloud Agents
2. All background agent work goes to cursor/aurea
3. Review and merge to main when ready

Claude Sessions¶

When starting a Claude session:

git checkout claude/atlas
git pull origin claude/atlas
# ... work ...
git push origin claude/atlas

Migration from Old Branches¶

After implementing this strategy, clean up old branches:

# Use the cleanup tools
./scripts/quick-cleanup.sh --dry-run  # Preview
./scripts/quick-cleanup.sh            # Execute

# Or interactive mode
./scripts/cleanup-branches.sh

See BRANCH_CLEANUP.md for detailed cleanup documentation.

Branch Protection Rules¶

Recommended GitHub settings for main:

• ✅ Require pull request before merging
• ✅ Require status checks to pass
• ✅ Require linear history
• ✅ Automatically delete head branches (for PR branches)
• ✅ Restrict who can push (no direct pushes)

Related Documents¶

• Branch Cleanup Tools
• GI Gate Workflow
• EPICON Governance

"Memory with teeth — even for branch management."

Cycle: C-198 Last Updated: 2026-01-16