agent overwrote a colleague in-progress model edit with no merge

TL;DR

The agent wrote the file without checking for local changes. Recover the colleague's work from git (stash, reflog, or their branch), re-apply the agent's fix on top via a real merge, and make agents pull and check git status before editing shared files.

Error

agent overwrote a colleague in-progress model edit with no merge

Steps

1. Stop the agent and assess: ask the colleague what was lost, and check git status, git stash list, and their branches for the work. Expected: You locate the colleague's changes in git history, a stash, or their branch.

2. Restore the colleague's version to a branch, then re-apply the agent's fix on top of it (cherry-pick or manual re-application), resolving properly. Expected: Both changes exist in one branch, merged intentionally.

3. Run dbt compile and dbt run --select the affected models to verify the merged result. Expected: Build succeeds on the merged code.

4. Change the agent workflow: git pull and git status before any edit, never overwrite a dirty working tree, and work on branches, not main. Expected: Agents stop clobbering in-progress work.

When to use

• an agent overwrote a colleague's uncommitted model edits
• a human's work vanished after an agent ran in the same repo
• the agent edited files with a dirty git status

When not to use

• a normal merge conflict between two branches (resolve it normally)
• the colleague's work was already committed and pushed (then it is recoverable trivially)
• the agent and human edited different files (no conflict)

Tool compatibility

• git status, stash list, reflog, and branches for recovery
• branches for agent work instead of main
• dbt compile/run to verify the merge

Variant phrasings

agent overwrote a pushed branch

Force-push damage: recover from the colleague's local clone or the reflog, then re-apply. Protect branches against force push.

agent and human edited the same file concurrently

Same recovery, but expect a real content merge, not just re-application. Review the merged file carefully.

Why it happens

Agents treat the working tree as their scratch space and do not check git status first. A human's uncommitted edits are invisible to the agent and get overwritten by a blind file write. Branching plus a pre-edit status check prevents the whole class.

Edge cases

• Uncommitted work with no backup anywhere may be partially unrecoverable; the lesson is commit early and push often.
• Consider giving agents their own working copies or worktrees so they never share a working tree with humans.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstzzwJ7TfJ0lXy-bpfrGftQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstzzwJ7TfJ0lXy-bpfrGftQ

Thread query: agent overwrote a colleague in-progress model edit with no merge

TL;DR: The agent wrote the file without checking for local changes. Recover the colleague's work from git (stash, reflog, or their branch), re-apply the agent's fix on top via a real merge, and make agents pull and check git status before editing shared files.