gitpace

Two-track git workflow for batching and timing client commits.

Batch your work session on a private branch backed up to your own remote. Ship commits to the client branch with hand-picked timestamps, one chunk at a time.

Install

npm install -g gitpace          # or: npx gitpace

Then in any repo:

gitpace

The TUI walks you through first-time setup (detects your origin, prompts for the URL of your private "gitpace" remote, installs a pre-push safety hook).

Prerequisites

• Node 20+
• git

Usage

gitpace                       # Open the TUI (default)
gitpace start-feature <name>  # Create <name> + gitpace-<name> from origin/main
gitpace attach                # Adopt the current origin branch as a gitpace feature
gitpace switch                # Switch between gitpace-managed features
gitpace ship                  # Cherry-pick commits with custom timestamps
gitpace resync                # Pull origin and rebase working branches
gitpace setup                 # Re-run first-time setup
gitpace help                  # Show help

Flags: -v / --verbose to surface raw git output.

The workflow

• gitpace-<name> — your working branch. Pushed only to your private gitpace remote. Never reaches the client.
• <name> — the client-facing branch on origin. Commits arrive here one ship at a time via the TUI, each with a custom timestamp.

You batch many small commits on gitpace-<name> during one session; later you run gitpace ship, pick the commit cutoff, set a session window (default 10:00 – now), and the chunk lands on <name> with timestamps.

Demo mode

To play with the TUI on fake data without touching any real repo:

npm run demo            # pick a scenario, then drop into the TUI
npm run demo -- active  # jump straight to a seeded scenario
npm run demo:reset      # wipe the demo sandbox

Scenarios: fresh (run setup wizard), ready, active (commits ready to ship), multi (multiple features for switch), teammate (origin moved ahead for resync), attachable (existing origin branch for attach).

The sandbox lives at $TMPDIR/gitpace-demo/ — entirely outside your repo.

What gitpace writes to your clone (local only)

• Adds a gitpace remote (your private repo for the gitpace-* work branches)
• Installs a pre-push hook in .git/hooks/pre-push (or your core.hooksPath if set) — blocks gitpace-* branches from ever reaching origin. An existing pre-push hook is backed up to pre-push.pre-gitpace.
• Sets a few configs in gitpace.* namespace (origin, remote, branch)

That's it. core.hooksPath, remote.pushDefault, and aliases are never touched — you can use the repo normally outside gitpace. Branches created by gitpace have proper per-branch upstreams (<feature> → origin, gitpace-<feature> → gitpace), so git push from any branch goes where you'd expect.

None of this touches origin or anyone else who pulls from it.

Gotchas

• The hook is per-clone. Re-run setup after cloning on a new machine (the TUI detects this automatically).
• Don't rebase the origin branch after the client has reviewed it. Use git merge main instead.
• The pre-push hook is your safety net — blocks gitpace-* branches from reaching origin.
• Cherry-pick conflicts are caught and the script stops with recovery instructions instead of silently failing.

License

MIT