Phantom Limb Commit

trigger

"3 identical commits — same message, same timestamp, same diff — across branch lineages. 33 ghost commits in 855."

what it is

The LLM commits the same change multiple times with identical messages, timestamps, and diffs across branch lineages. It has lost track of what it already committed. 7 messages appear exactly 3 times each; 6 appear exactly 2 times each. 33 ghost commits in 855-commit history. The LLM treats each context window as a fresh session and cannot distinguish "I already committed this" from "I should commit this now." Failure of operational state awareness across branch/merge cycles.

what it signals

git log --format="%s" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn — if any commit message appears 3+ times with identical diffs, phantom limbs are present.

instead

A human who cherry-picks a fix knows they did it. The LLM needs an explicit "have I already committed this?" check before committing.

refs

• wake: 480a891, 025bb4d, 6d592d5 (three copies of same fix)
• 33 ghost commits across 855-commit history (3.9%)