git-stack2

A tool for managing stacked Git branches with powerful commands for navigation, rebasing, and atomic operations.

Installation

npm install -g git-stack2

Usage

Show current stack

git stack

This displays all branches in your current stack, with the current branch highlighted.

Navigate the stack

Move up one branch (toward the tip):

git stack up

Move down one branch (toward the base):

git stack down

Jump to the top of the stack:

git stack top

Jump to the bottom of the stack:

git stack bottom

Modify commits in a stack

Amend the current commit and automatically rebase dependent branches:

git amend
# Pass any git commit --amend flags
git amend --no-edit
git amend -m "Updated commit message"

Insert a new commit/branch and automatically rebase dependent branches:

git insert
# Pass any git commit flags
git insert -m "New feature"

Sync with remote

Pull all topmost branches in the current stack with rebase:

git stack pull

Push all branches in the current stack atomically:

git stack push

Move the entire stack

Move your entire stack onto a different base branch:

git stack move <branch>
# Example: move stack from main to develop
git stack move develop

How it works

The tool identifies your git stack by:

1. Finding all local branches in the repository
2. Determining the default branch (main or master)
3. Computing the merge-base of each branch with the default branch to narrow the scope of "relevant changes"
4. Building a graph of parent-child relationships using git log

This allows you to easily navigate through a stack of related feature branches. It's also easy to migrate from any existing git stack tool, since it doesn't store any state.

Example

If you have branches structured like:

• main (base)
• feature-1 (based on main)
• feature-2 (based on feature-1)
• feature-3 (based on feature-2)

When you're on feature-2, running git stack will show:

Current stack:
────────────────────────────────────────
  feature-3
  │
→ feature-2 (current)
  │
  feature-1
────────────────────────────────────────

Total branches in stack: 3

You can then use git stack up to move to feature-3 or git stack down to move to feature-1.