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Teammates must create branches & link repos via Agor MCP, never work around through GitHub #18

Description

@DrYampy

Problem

A teammate finished coding work, then created the git branch and PR directly through raw git + GitHub (git checkout -b, git push, GitHub PR via create_pull_request) instead of Agor's MCP (agor_branches_create). The branch existed on GitHub but did not appear in Agor — no board card, no branch record, no linked session — because Agor only tracks branches created through its own branch system.

The user expected to see it in Agor and was confused: "how come this branch isn't showing up in Agor settings?"

Why it matters (UX)

Users reasonably expect that any branch a teammate creates is visible and managed inside Agor: board placement, sessions, PR link, environment. A GitHub-only path silently breaks that mental model and fragments state — the git ref lives outside Agor's worktree/clone management, so nothing in the Agor UI reflects the work.

Recovery required manually creating an Agor branch after the fact (agor_branches_create with createBranch: false, pointing at the already-pushed ref) and re-linking the PR. That round-trip should never have been necessary.

Repro

  1. Teammate does work in its home branch and produces a folder to commit.
  2. Teammate runs git checkout -b <name> in a local checkout, commits, pushes, and opens a PR through GitHub directly.
  3. The branch never surfaces in Agor's branch list / board, even when the target repo is already registered in Agor.

Ask

  1. Strengthen teammate guidance (AGENTS.md / skills/task-management.md) to make it unambiguous: branch creation and repo linking go through Agor MCP (agor_branches_create, repo registration tools) under all circumstances. Never fall back to raw git checkout -b + GitHub PR for a new line of work.
  2. Handle the unregistered-repo case explicitly: if the target repo isn't registered in Agor, register it first, then branch through Agor — rather than reaching for git/GitHub as a workaround.
  3. Consider a product guardrail (may belong in preset-io/agor): warn or flag when a teammate pushes a new branch to a registered repo's remote with no corresponding Agor branch, so this class of drift is caught automatically.

Context

Surfaced during a real session: a teammate built a routine, committed it to DrYampy/claude-code via CLI + GitHub PR, and the branch was invisible in Agor until an Agor branch was created manually. The repo was already registered in Agor at the time, so there was no reason to bypass the MCP path.

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