kandev/docs/specs/merge-commit-details/spec.md

title, status, created, owner

title	status	created	owner
Repair merge commit details	building	2026-08-02	kandev

Repair merge commit details

Problem

Opening a clean merge commit from the Changes panel can show No files in this commit even when the merge introduced files and GitHub shows a non-empty commit diff. The commit row can still report the correct aggregate additions and deletions, leaving the row and detail view visibly inconsistent.

Desired behavior

• Opening a merge commit shows the files changed between that commit and its first parent, matching GitHub's commit-detail semantics and the branch history represented by Kandev's commit list.
• Each changed file retains its patch, status, additions, and deletions through the existing CommitDiffResult.files response.
• A merge commit does not duplicate files by returning a separate diff for each parent or switch to a combined-diff view.
• Ordinary single-parent commits and root commits keep their current diff behavior.
• A genuinely empty commit continues to return an empty file collection and may display No files in this commit.
• Single-commit details remain uncapped; cumulative-diff budget behavior is unchanged.

Regression scenarios

• GIVEN a feature branch whose first-parent tip does not contain a file from the branch being merged, WHEN the user opens the resulting clean merge commit, THEN the incoming file and its patch are shown in commit details.
• GIVEN a file already exists unchanged in the merge commit's first parent, WHEN the user opens the merge commit, THEN that first-parent-only file is not incorrectly presented as introduced by the merge.
• GIVEN a normal single-parent or root commit with file changes, WHEN the user opens it, THEN its changed files continue to be shown.
• GIVEN a commit with no tree change from its parent, WHEN the user opens it, THEN the commit details may show the empty-file message.

Constraints

• Preserve the existing session.commit_diff WebSocket action and CommitDiffResult response shape.
• Use the merge commit's first parent as the sole comparison base.
• Keep commit metadata lookup and multi-repository routing unchanged.

Out of scope

• Adding parent-selection controls or combined-diff rendering.
• Changing commit-list aggregation, cumulative PR changes, or diff budgets.
• Changing the commit-details UI, empty-state copy, or mobile composition.