A conflict can be undone

abort is a safe exit you can always take

Your very first conflict. CONFLICT lines fill the terminal, and when you open the file it's packed with unfamiliar markers like <<<<<<< and =======. Your stomach drops for a second: "did I just break the repo?" Relax. Nothing is broken. Git has simply paused the merge partway through and is waiting for you to decide.

If you decide "actually, not right now," just run git merge --abort. The markers vanish and your files roll all the way back to how they were before you started the merge, as if it never happened (as long as you committed or stashed your own changes before merging). Git never silently overwrites your work and barrels ahead. It always stops just short, hands the decision to you, and keeps an escape route open. That is Git's safety device.

That said, --abort is the retreat button for "let me start over" or "not now." It isn't the proper way to resolve a conflict. It only works while the merge is still in progress, before you commit the resolution. Even so, just knowing you can undo the whole merge takes most of the fear out of conflicts. Take a breath and face the markers.