Research task (Technical Documentation):
I am trying to learn more about merge conflicts in git and how to resolve them. It would be really helpful if you could help me understand different commands like rebase and stash with examples, and make these concepts clearer to me. Also, tell me what a detached HEAD state is and how to bypass it.

Evaluation rubric:
criterion: The response provides a description of “merge conflict” where Git cannot automatically reconcile differences because two branches or commits have modified the same part of a file, requiring manual resolution.
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response names at least one Git command that helps detect conflicts and explains how the command is used to do so (e.g. git status shows files that are unmerged or in conflict, git diff highlights the specific conflicting changes within those files).
weight: 4
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response provides a description of "git rebase" which is used to reapply commits onto another base branch, therefore helping streamline history and resolving conflicts by replaying changes in sequence.
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response provides a description of "git stash" which temporarily saves uncommitted changes without committing them, therefore helping with switching branches or resolving conflicts by allowing the user to set aside work-in-progress and reapply it later.
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response provides a description of a detached HEAD state which is when Git’s HEAD pointer is not attached to a branch but instead points directly to a specific commit, meaning new commits will not belong to any branch unless explicitly attached.
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response describes how to manage large files or repository performance (e.g. using tools like Git LFS to handle large binary files, cleaning up history with commands like git gc or git filter-repo, optimizing performance by ignoring generated files or splitting repositories when necessary).
weight: 1
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response notes that before exiting a detached HEAD state, it is good practice to check the current status and ensure branch pointers are up-to-date (e.g. using git status to confirm the state of HEAD, git fetch origin to get updates from origin, git fetch --all to update local branch references).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response gives at least one method to exit or bypass detached HEAD, with examples (e.g. using git checkout branch-name to reattach HEAD to an existing branch, git checkout -b new-branch to create and switch to a new branch, git switch branch-name as a clearer alternative to checkout for existing branches, git switch -c new-branch to create and switch to a new branch).
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response includes an example showing Git conflict markers, specifically <<<<<<< HEAD, =======, and >>>>>>> branch_name, to illustrate how Git separates the current branch’s changes from the incoming branch’s changes.
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response explains fundamental Git concepts and beginner-relevant commands that directly tie to conflict resolution and merging (e.g. understanding what a commit is as a snapshot of changes, using git merge to combine branches and noting how conflicts arise, using git rebase to apply commits sequentially onto another branch, using git stash to temporarily save uncommitted work before switching branches, and recognizing the role of HEAD as the reference to the currently checked-out commit).
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response includes at least two illustrative examples for each "git rebase" and "git stash" where each example clearly shows how the command works in practice and clarify the underlying concept (e.g. a developer uses "git rebase" to rebase a feature branch onto main to integrate the latest commits, demonstrating how conflicts are resolved during the process, a developer uses "git stash" to stash uncommitted changes before switching branches, then later applies the stash to restore the work).
weight: 5
axis: Explicit Criteria

criterion: The response expands on unrelated Git topics that are not requested in the prompt (e.g. git submodule, git bisect, git blame, git cherry-pick), thereby diverting focus away from merge conflicts, rebase, stash, and detached HEAD state.
weight: -3
axis: Synthesis of Information

criterion: The response explicitly differentiates between git merge and git rebase, describing at least four key differences (e.g. merge preserves history by creating a new merge commit, while rebase rewrites history by applying commits on top of another branch; merge produces a non-linear history, whereas rebase results in a linear one; merge may require resolving conflicts once at the merge point, while rebase can require resolving conflicts at each commit replay; merge is safer for shared branches, while rebase should generally be avoided on public branches since it rewrites commit hashes).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response warns that rebasing published commits can rewrite history and may cause problems for collaborators
weight: 2
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response mentions that stashed changes are retrieved with "git stash pop" or "git stash apply"
weight: 2
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response mentions git rebase --continue and how the command tells Git to move to the next commit after conflicts are fixed.
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response covers the use of Git through graphical user interface (GUI) tools or hosting platforms, explaining how they can help with merging and conflict resolution (e.g. tools such as GitKraken, SourceTree, or GitHub Desktop provide visual interfaces to manage rebase and resolve merge conflicts; hosting platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket highlight conflicts in pull/merge requests and offer web-based editors to resolve them; GUIs make it clearer when the repository is in a detached HEAD state and guide the user back to a branch).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response correctly notes that HEAD is a reference pointing to the latest commit of the currently checked-out branch rather than vaguely saying it points to the current commit/branch reference.
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response acknowledges that stashes are stored on the stash stack and can be listed with "git stash list"
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response introduces factual errors about Git concepts (e.g. git stash merges the current branch with the parent branch; git rebase permanently deletes commits; git merge discards history instead of preserving it; a detached HEAD means the repository is broken and unusable).
weight: -5
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response covers at least one graphical conflict-resolution tool suggestion with examples (e.g. IDEs like Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA provide built-in merge conflict editors; GitHub’s web-based editor highlights conflicts in pull requests; GitKraken offers a dedicated conflict-resolution interface; SourceTree provides a GUI for staging, viewing, and resolving conflicts).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response cites at least one link to the official Git documentation to support its explanations and provide authoritative reference material.
weight: 2
axis: References & Citation Quality

criterion: The response covers security practices in Git and explains their effect (e.g. signing commits and tags with GPG or SSH keys to verify authenticity and determine who made a merge for future reference; enforcing signed commits in a repository to ensure only verified contributions are accepted; using protected branches with required reviews to prevent unauthorized merges; verifying commit integrity via checksums to ensure history has not been tampered with).
weight: 1
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response explains how to use Git hooks to automate workflows and relates this to merging and conflict resolution (e.g. using a pre-commit hook to run linting or tests before changes are committed, a pre-push hook to prevent pushing and reducing merge conflicts if the branch is out of date; a post-merge hook to trigger automated builds or alerts after resolving conflicts, a prepare-commit-msg hook to enforce commit message standards, improving clarity when recovering history after issues like a detached HEAD).
weight: 2
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response explains that while git rebase applies commits sequentially, you may be forced to resolve the same logical conflict multiple times (e.g. if several commits each modify the same function, the developer may need to resolve the conflict at every step of the rebase).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response mentions best practices to prevent merge conflicts, with representative examples (e.g., frequently pulling from the main branch to keep feature branches up to date, making small and focused commits to reduce overlap, clearly communicating with team members about which files or modules are being modified, using feature branches or pull requests to isolate work and coordinate integration).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response includes steps on how to resolve an incorrectly applied git rebase (e.g. using git rebase --abort to stop the rebase and return to the previous state, using git rebase --continue after fixing conflicts to correctly finish the process, using git reflog to find the commit before the rebase and reset back to it, using git reset --hard origin/branch-name to discard local changes and realign with the remote branch).
weight: 2
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response includes a step-by-step guide on how to use git reflog and explains how it can help with merge fixing (e.g. git reflog records the movement of HEAD, git reflog helps finding a commit reference from before a failed merge or rebase, git reflog helps recovery of lost commits and safe restoration of the repository’s state when mistakes occur).
weight: 2
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response explains the command git pull --rebase and its relevance to the merging process (e.g. instead of performing a regular git pull that merges the remote branch into the local branch with a merge commit, git pull --rebase rewrites local commits on top of the updated upstream branch, creating a linear history; git pull --rebase helps avoid unnecessary merge commits, makes history cleaner, and reduces the likelihood of complex conflicts during collaboration).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria

criterion: The response details common branching strategies and collaborative workflows like Pull Requests and relates them to conflict resolution and merging (e.g. feature-branch workflows and Git Flow can reduce merge conflicts by isolating changes, Pull Requests on GitHub/GitLab provide a structured way to review and resolve conflicts before merging, rebasing a feature branch before opening a Pull Request helps maintain a clean history, GUI workflows on hosting platforms make it easier to detect and avoid detached HEAD situations).
weight: 3
axis: Implicit Criteria