5 Git Workflow Mistakes I Made Shipping an Open-Source MCP Server (With Sub-Agents)

I shipped mcp-swiss — a TypeScript MCP server with 68 tools across 20 Swiss open data modules — through 6 releases in a single day. In the process, I (with the help of AI sub-agents) made every classic git workflow mistake in the book. Here's exactly what went wrong, what the fallout was, and the hard rules I locked in afterward. If you're using AI agents to help you ship code, you'll recognize these. The Setup The project uses a standard git flow: feature branch → PR → develop (CI + beta publish) → PR → main (CI + production release) ci.yml runs lint, build, tests, security audit. beta.yml auto-publishes pre-release versions to npm. release.yml triggers on main merges. Clean on paper. Messy in practice when sub-agents are involved. Mistake #1: "Merge" Without "PR" What happened: When the task instructions said "merge the feature branch into develop," the sub-agent interpreted that literally — git merge origin/feature-branch && git push . No PR. No CI check on the merge commit. No pape