The goal: Merge changes in develop from feature branch.
Easy enough, but the merge has conflicts. I used the conflict resolution tool on github. I resolved the conflicts. I got a warning that this would change develop. Nope. Do not want. Abort.
Research:
Started here: https://help.github.com/articles/about-merge-conflicts/
Read this: If your merge conflict is caused by competing line changes, such as when people make different changes to the same line of the same file on different branches in your Git repository, you can resolve it on GitHub using the conflict editor. For more information, see "Resolving a merge conflict on GitHub."
Lead here: https://help.github.com/articles/resolving-a-merge-conflict-on-github/
Read this: Warning: When you resolve a merge conflict on GitHub, the entire base branch of your pull request is merged into the head branch, even if the head branch is the default branch of your repository, like master, or a protected branch. Make sure you really want to commit to this branch.
What if you don't?
I want to resolve the conflict into my feature branch without altering the develop branch in any way.
How?
If I wanted to alter develop I would be merging in the other direction.
Seems it isn't possible. It is quite clear that merging A into B on github will result in changes to A if there are merge conflicts. This makes absolutely no sense to me but is clearly documented.
The merge was done locally.