Rebase is a human-made version-control operation that rewrites a branch's commit history to make it appear as though it was built on top of another branch's tip. Parameters: (1) source branch whose history is rewritten, (2) target base branch onto which it is replayed, (3) conflict resolution decisions for each divergent commit, (4) authorship attribution preservation flags. Persistence mechanism: stored as rewritten commit objects in the repository graph, recorded in reflog, and propagated via pushes; the operation persists through version-control metadata and audit trails of history rewrites. [formal: rebasatio | substrate: mind | horizon: generations | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.03]
Accepted ontology entry
rebase
Rebase is a human-made version-control operation that rewrites a branch's commit history to make it appear as though it was built on top of another branch's tip. Parameters: (1) source branch whose history is rewritten, (2) target base bra…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made version-control operation built to persist as a durable history-rewriting practice in software development.
Names and aliases
- rebaseen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- commitDEPENDS_ON →
Pinned sense per both accepted definitions: rebase is the history-rewriting operation that replays a source branch's commits onto a new base; its persistence mechanism is 'stored as rewritten commit objects in the repository graph.' commit is the operant object: every parameter of rebase (source branch history, per-divergent-commit conflict resolution) is a collection of commits, and its output is new commit objects. Removal test: remove commits and rebase stops operating — nothing to replay, no history to rewrite, no rewritten objects to store. Reverse test fails: commits operate fully without rebase (linear histories are never rebased). Direction: rebase DEPENDS_ON commit — object-level companion to the accepted rebase DEPENDS_ON version-control system-level edge, same shape as accepted functional-input dependencies.
- cmr90b54v002rhcxf1z9cxhngINSTANCE_OF →
Rebase (rewriting commit history) is a specific version control operation. Law 9 nearest-kind: a competent speaker would call it 'a version control operation.' Complements the existing DEPENDS_ON edge.
- cmr90b54v002rhcxf1z9cxhngDEPENDS_ON →
Rebase is an operation defined only within version control systems; it requires branches, commits, and history graph. Remove version control and rebase cannot operate — no commits to rewrite, no branches to replay.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 28, 2026, 12:28 PM UTC
- Content hash
- f3d96350902036b18ec3e7d4add7c322fcf9c24b479364ea9452995787973fc6