A merge conflict happens when two lines of work change the same part of the same file and Git refuses to guess which version wins. It stops and asks for a decision. A conflict doesn’t mean the code is broken or someone messed up; it means an automatic merge would be risky in that spot.
Imagine two people editing copies of the same client proposal. One rewrites the pricing paragraph; the other rewrites that same paragraph differently. When you bring the drafts back together, someone has to decide what that paragraph should say.
Why you care
Conflicts surface when branches come back together through a pull request. Different files usually combine cleanly; the same lines produce a conflict, and a person or agent edits the final version into a commit. An agent can propose a clean resolution, and you still review the decision, because the right answer may depend on business context rather than syntax. For shared skills, the conflict is the warning light: two people edited the same thing, so decide before it becomes official. That’s far cheaper than silently overwriting someone else’s work.