The software world
Merge
Combining the commits from one branch into another — usually folding a finished feature branch into
main. When both branches changed the same lines, git can't decide for you and reports a merge conflict, which someone has to resolve by hand. Why it matters
Part of Version control (git) → Merging is the moment a change stops being an experiment and becomes part of the real project, which is why it usually sits behind an approved pull request. Conflicts sound alarming and aren't: they're git refusing to guess. Claude is unusually good at explaining what each side of a conflict was trying to do.
see also