gitrewrite

Edit Git history vidir style.

Install

bun --global add gitrewrite
bunx gitrewrite

npm install -g gitrewrite
npx gitrewrite

Requirements

• git and Node.js 18+
• an attached branch head; detached HEAD is not supported

How It Works

1. gitrewrite selects a first-parent suffix ending at HEAD
2. writes that selection to a temporary history.yaml
3. opens the YAML buffer in $EDITOR
4. gitrewrite validates the edited YAML and prints a simulated rewrite
5. it prompts before applying unless you pass --yes or --no-verify

Quick Start

gitrewrite
gitrewrite --last 5
gitrewrite --all
gitrewrite HEAD~10..HEAD
gitrewrite HEAD~10 --dry-run
gitrewrite --last 1 --yes

By default, gitrewrite selects the last 50 first-parent commits ending at HEAD.

Edited Buffer

The editor buffer is YAML. Each entry contains the commit identity and message fields that gitrewrite can rewrite:

- sha: 0123456789abcdef
  subject: third
  author:
    name: Test User
    email: [email protected]
  committer:
    name: Test User
    email: [email protected]
  date: 2026-02-22 01:23:45
  body: |
    body

You can:

• change subject, body, author, committer, or date
• reorder entries to replay commits in a different order
• remove entries to drop commits from the selected range

Selection Rules

• gitrewrite only edits a contiguous first-parent suffix ending at HEAD
• --last N and --all are mutually exclusive
• [revision] cannot be combined with --last or --all
• a single revision like HEAD~10 is treated as HEAD~10..HEAD

Flags

• --last N edit the last N first-parent commits ending at HEAD
• --all edit the full first-parent history ending at HEAD
• --dry-run preview the rewrite without applying it
• --no-verify skip the confirmation prompt after validation
• --yes apply without the confirmation prompt

Notes

• Reordering or dropping merge commits is not supported. Merge commits can still be edited for metadata changes.
• If the edited YAML is semantically unchanged, gitrewrite exits cleanly without rewriting history.
• If the working tree is dirty, gitrewrite preserves those tracked changes and updates the branch ref without checking out the rewritten tree.
• Rewritten history still needs the usual force-push workflow if you have already published those commits.

Safer Workflow

Use --dry-run first when you are changing commit order or dropping commits:

gitrewrite --last 5 --dry-run

That prints the planned changes, the Git operations, and the simulated selected history without mutating the branch.