Unit 4 Git playground — Lesson 5

A tiny command-line notes tool, used as the practice repo for Unit 4, Lesson 5 (merge conflicts). This repo has two branches, feature-a and feature-b, that changed the same line in different ways. Merging them creates a conflict on purpose — your job is to have Claude resolve it so both changes survive.

The app

• node notes.js add <text> — add a note
• node notes.js list — list all notes
• node notes.js search <term> — list notes containing a term
• node notes.js delete <id> — delete a note

Layout: notes.js is the entry point, lib/store.js loads, saves, and searches notes, lib/config.js holds settings, and tests/ holds the test suite (npm test).

Set up

1. Make sure you have your own copy of this repo (created from the lesson on the platform).
2. Clone it locally and open Claude Code in the folder.

Lesson 5 task — resolve a merge conflict

Goal: merge two branches that touched the same line, and have Claude resolve the conflict so both changes survive — not just one.

1. Check the branches are there. Run git branch -a — you should see feature-a and feature-b. They came with your copy.
2. Start the merge. Get onto feature-a and ask Claude: "Merge feature-b into feature-a." You'll hit a conflict — that's expected.
3. Have Claude resolve it. Ask: "Resolve the conflict, keeping what both branches were trying to do."
4. Review the result. Does the merged line keep both changes — what feature-a did and what feature-b did — or did one side get dropped? A merge can build and run fine and still have quietly thrown away half the work.
5. Commit the merge and push feature-a.
6. Open a pull request from feature-a into main. Ask Claude: "Open a pull request for feature-a into main." Then submit the pull request link.