FAQ: Your Free Server Closed. What Actually Shipped?

Description and use

Users often mistakenly believe that a successful prompt on a free server means code was committed. A step‑by‑step checklist is provided, including git state checks, tree cleanliness, runner identity dump, and creating a session receipt before ending the session.

Problem

Users assume a successful prompt on a free server means code was merged, but the session may leave no durable artifacts.

Outcome

By following the checklist, users can confirm whether work was truly merged, avoid false positives, and preserve a verifiable receipt of the session.

Workflow

• Run git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD, git rev-parse HEAD, git status --porcelain=v1, git log -1 --format='%H %D %s' to check branch and commit.
• Verify upstream with git rev-parse @{u} and git cherry -v to confirm a merge receipt.
• Check tree cleanliness: git diff --cached --stat and git diff --stat plus git ls-files --others --exclude-standard for untracked files.
• Dump runner identity: create a script that outputs date, cwd, uid/gid, uname, shell, PATH, python and node versions, and locale; save to session_identity.txt.
• Before closing the session, run a receipt script that records git refs, status, stash list, diff stats, recent logs, and writes to a file in $HOME/receipts.
• Push the receipt or copy it off the server to preserve evidence.
• Compare receipts across environments to confirm consistency.

Evidence

A session can look complete and still own nothing durable. Git never saw the files.

Source

If HEAD is detached, you do not have a branch. If porcelain is empty, maybe the tree is clean.

Source