In this case, the merge could be replaced by a libgit2 update-ref. There's at least one merge (in [Pull.cs](https://github.com/pmiossec/git-tfs/blob/17e4cfdf8de3bf916cc7531a768c81783888ec04/GitTfs/Commands/Pull.cs#L53-L56), oh and a rebase too) that actually do a merge.