git-vir

CLI tool for making life with git and GitHub easier.

Requires the GitHub CLI to be installed and authenticated.

How to setup

1. Install GitHub CLI: https://github.com/cli/cli#installation
2. Authenticate GitHub CLI: gh auth login
3. Install this package (probably globally): npm i -g git-vir

How to use

Push

Use this instead of git push when you have a chain of several PRs that are targeting each other and they all need to be updated after the base PR is updated.

1. Start with the base-most branch (the branch closest to your main dev branch) that needs to be updated.
2. Make the necessary changes to that branch (rebase, commit amend, etc.).
3. Run git-vir push.
   • If you use a remote name besides origin, you can provide that as well with git-vir <remote-name-here> push.
   • If you encounter merge conflicts, resolve them as you would for a normal git rebase command. Then, run git-vir push to resume updating the chain.
4. Don't do anything else in the repo's directory until the command is finished.
   • The git-vir command will checkout and push all dependent branches, recursively.
   • If you do anything with the repo while this is happening, it'll likely break this process, including pushing changes to incorrect branches.

Merge

Use this on a branch that has a chained PR which is ready for merge. It will merge the branch's PR and then rebase all chained branches.

Make sure to include a merge type: --squash, --rebase, or --merge. Like this:

git-vir merge --squash

If you use a remote name besides origin, you can provide that as well with git-vir <remote-name-here> merge --squash.

Convert to Worktree

Converts a standard git repository into a git worktree layout with a bare repository and a branch-specific working directory.

git-vir convert-to-worktree

This is useful when you want to work on multiple branches simultaneously in separate directories without having to stash or commit in-progress work.

What it does

Given a repo at ~/repos/my-repo on branch main, running git-vir convert-to-worktree produces:

~/repos/my-repo/
├── my-repo.git/    # bare repository
└── main/           # working tree for the current branch

A backup copy of the original repo is saved to a temp directory (printed during execution).

After conversion, add new worktrees with standard git commands from within any existing worktree:

git worktree add ../new-branch

Restrictions

• The repo must not already be a worktree.
• The repo must not have any other worktrees attached. Remove them first with git worktree remove.