mad-skills/yarn-lock-separate-commit/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
yarn-lock-separate-commit	yarn.lock in its own commit — use when changing Yarn dependencies (package.json deps, workspace renames, yarn install), when organizing or reviewing commits that touch yarn.lock, when a rebase conflicts on yarn.lock, or during a retcon. Every lockfile change ships alone as `chore: Update yarn.lock`, after the package.json commit that caused it.

yarn.lock in a separate commit

Every change that touches yarn.lock ships in its own commit, with the message chore: Update yarn.lock. It stays separate from the package.json change that caused it.

Why

A separate lockfile commit can be dropped on a rebase and cleanly regenerated. A combined commit turns lockfile churn into merge conflicts, and those get resolved by re-running yarn install and stitching by hand. That's error-prone and clutters the history.

Procedure

After the dependency change in package.json:

git add packages/foo/package.json
git commit -m "feat(foo): add bar dependency"

npx corepack yarn install
git add yarn.lock
git commit -m "chore: Update yarn.lock"

Order matters. Put the lockfile commit after the package.json commit, so dropping the lockfile commit still leaves a coherent state.

Rebasing past a lockfile conflict

If another PR changed dependencies in the meantime, rebasing onto the moved base usually conflicts on yarn.lock. Don't hand-merge it. Drop the old lockfile commit and regenerate the lockfile:

git rebase origin/<base>
# conflict on yarn.lock
git rebase --skip                 # drop the old lockfile commit
# ... any other fixes on top ...
npx corepack yarn install         # regenerate against the new base
git add yarn.lock
git commit -m "chore: Update yarn.lock"

Pitfalls

• git commit --amend on the package.json commit quietly pulls the lockfile in if it's staged. Stage and commit the lockfile last.
• Combined by accident: run git reset HEAD~1, restage selectively, and recommit as two commits.
• Package renames change the lockfile. Renaming a workspace's directory or its package.json name changes the workspace key ("@scope/<name>@workspace:packages/<dir>") in yarn.lock. Once all the renames are in, regenerate with npx corepack yarn install. Commit the result on its own as usual, and don't hand-edit the key.

See also

• Retcon applies this rule to a whole branch's history after the fact.
• Adapted from the yarn-lock-separate-commit skill in kriscendobot/garden (May 2026).