[WIP] Fix branch numbering to increment globally across all features

[Copilot]

Thanks for asking me to work on this. I will get started on it and keep this PR's description up to date as I form a plan and make progress.

Original prompt

Fix branch numbering to increment globally across all features

The /specify command was always creating branches starting at 001, ignoring existing feature branches with different short-names.

Problem

Given existing branches 001-user-auth, 002-payment-flow, 003-dashboard, creating a new feature would incorrectly produce 001-admin-panel instead of 004-admin-panel.

Root Cause

The check_existing_branches() (bash) and Get-NextBranchNumber() (PowerShell) functions filtered by exact short-name match:

# Before: Only finds branches matching the specific short-name
grep -E "refs/heads/[0-9]+-${short_name}$"

# After: Finds all feature branches
grep -E "refs/heads/[0-9]+-"

This meant each unique short-name started its numbering from 001, rather than continuing the global sequence.

Changes

Bash (scripts/bash/create-new-feature.sh)

• Changed remote, local, and specs directory searches to match pattern [0-9]+-* instead of [0-9]+-${short_name}
• Added octal-to-decimal conversion (10#$num) to handle leading zeros correctly

PowerShell (scripts/powershell/create-new-feature.ps1)

• Applied equivalent regex changes to match all feature branches
• Maintains parity with bash implementation

Documentation (templates/commands/specify.md)

• Updated instructions to clarify branch numbers increment globally across all features

Behavior

Branch numbers now increment sequentially regardless of short-name:

• 001-user-auth → 002-payment-flow → 003-dashboard → 004-admin-panel

This pull request was created as a result of the following prompt from Copilot chat.

Fix branch numbering to increment globally across all features

The /specify command was always creating branches starting at 001, ignoring existing feature branches with different short-names.

Problem

Given existing branches 001-user-auth, 002-payment-flow, 003-dashboard, creating a new feature would incorrectly produce 001-admin-panel instead of 004-admin-panel.

Root Cause

The check_existing_branches() (bash) and Get-NextBranchNumber() (PowerShell) functions filtered by exact short-name match:

# Before: Only finds branches matching the specific short-name
grep -E "refs/heads/[0-9]+-${short_name}$"

# After: Finds all feature branches
grep -E "refs/heads/[0-9]+-"

This meant each unique short-name started its numbering from 001, rather than continuing the global sequence.

Changes

Bash (scripts/bash/create-new-feature.sh)

• Changed remote, local, and specs directory searches to match pattern [0-9]+-* instead of [0-9]+-${short_name}
• Added octal-to-decimal conversion (10#$num) to handle leading zeros correctly

PowerShell (scripts/powershell/create-new-feature.ps1)

• Applied equivalent regex changes to match all feature branches
• Maintains parity with bash implementation

Documentation (templates/commands/specify.md)

• Updated instructions to clarify branch numbers increment globally across all features

Behavior

Branch numbers now increment sequentially regardless of short-name:

• 001-user-auth → 002-payment-flow → 003-dashboard → 004-admin-panel

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