How to Fix Git Merge Conflicts Without Panic

A merge conflict is not an error — it is git asking a question: "both branches changed this line; which version do you want?"

Reading the markers

<<<<<<< HEAD
  color: blue;        ← your branch
=======
  color: red;         ← their branch
>>>>>>> feature/theme

Fixing it

1. Open each conflicted file (git status lists them)
2. In VS Code, click Accept Current / Accept Incoming / Accept Both — or hand-edit to combine, deleting ALL marker lines
3. git add . then git commit — done

The escape hatch

git merge --abort     # undo everything, back to before the merge

Knowing this exists removes the panic — you cannot destroy work with a conflict.

Prevention

• Pull main into your branch daily — small conflicts beat giant ones
• Keep branches short-lived (days, not weeks)
• Don't reformat whole files in feature branches (formatting diffs = conflict factories)