git-workbench-mcp

Structured git for agents — the version-control axis of the task lifecycle, both directions.

Everything before "tests pass" has structured tooling; after that, agents fall back to shell gymnastics: parsing git status --porcelain, eyeballing 400-line diffs to mentally group changes, and — the real blocker — no way to stage part of a file, because git add -p is interactive and agent harnesses can't drive it. Going backwards in time is the same: "why does this guard exist?" means re-deriving blame/log -S incantations with unstructured output.

Tools

change_set — the dirty tree as stable hunk IDs

change_set
→ 2 changed file(s):
    api.js [modified]
      h_1be309f253 lines 1-5 (+1/-1): +  return { id: String(id) }; // fix: ids are strings
      h_8c5ef44ddc lines 10-14 (+1/-1): +  console.log("access", user.id);
    notes.txt [untracked] — whole-file only (select via paths=[...])

Hunk IDs are content-addressed (path + hunk body, not line numbers), so they survive unrelated edits elsewhere in the file.

commit — non-interactive partial staging, hard-verified

commit message="fix: user ids are strings" hunk_ids=["h_1be309f253"]
→ committed 3359f51a: 1 file(s) — api.js
  working tree still has uncommitted changes (as selected)

One mixed working tree becomes several clean commits. A wrong partial stage would silently commit a state that never existed in the working tree — so the surgery is guarded on both sides:

• hunk IDs are re-derived from a fresh diff at commit time: if the tree moved since change_set, the commit refuses (never fuzzy-applies) and tells you to re-select
• after staging, the cached diff's hunk IDs must equal exactly the selection — any mismatch resets the index and commits nothing
• a dirty index is refused unless reset_index=true (files are never touched)

Also does the boring cases: commit message=... commits everything; paths=[...] commits whole files.

history — structured "why is this code like this?"

history file=app.py line_start=2 line_end=2        # blame mode
→ lines 2: 8a1f3c2d 2026-03-14 jane: add safety guard to top

history query="safety guard"                        # pickaxe mode
→ 1 commit(s) touching "safety guard":
    8a1f3c2d 2026-03-14 jane: add safety guard to top
      +    if True:  # safety guard

history file=app.py                                 # file log, renames followed

Install

// .mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "git-workbench": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ahmedshaikh/git-workbench-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Repo root defaults to the server cwd (GIT_WORKBENCH_ROOT or per-call cwd).

Limits

• renamed and binary files are whole-file only (no hunk addressing)
• quoted/unusual paths (spaces work; embedded quotes don't) — v1
• overlapping hunk selections that git cannot stage independently are refused with a suggestion to commit the whole file
• no push/PR tooling (deliberate: creating commits is the stall; gh is not)

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run build

MIT