Merge
In plain English
A merge brings another branchA branch is a named line of snapshots, so a new idea can grow beside the shared line.’s snapshots onto the branch you are on, usually after a person agrees.
Example
Your glossary branchA branch is a named line of snapshots, so a new idea can grow beside the shared line. joins main. Main now contains those commits. The branch name can stay as history. Two people edited the same line. The merge stops and asks a human which line to keep. That pause is a conflictA merge conflict happens when Git cannot automatically reconcile competing changes., not a broken site. Merging into your own side branch is allowed. It still does not publish the website.
Why it matters
Side work is useless if it can never come home. A merge is the moment the side line joins the line you are standing on.
The word is ordinary English. In GitGit is a version-control tool that records changes to files and helps people combine work over time. it is a recorded step, so you can see which branchA branch is a named line of snapshots, so a new idea can grow beside the shared line. arrived and when.
On bot.ski, a merge onto main happens after a pull requestA pull request asks people to review proposed code changes and combine them into a target branch.. This glossary does not merge itself. A person does that later, if the review says yes.
Updated September 23, 2026.