Creating a stack

Graphite's CLI makes it easy to stack dependent branches on top of each other!

Creating your first branch from scratch


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Tip

Unlike a standard git workflow where you create a new branch before working on your feature, with gt we recommend using the following process:

  1. Start by adding your changes directly on top of an existing branch.
  2. Stage the changes using gt add -A
  3. Create a new branch with the changes using gt branch create

This follows the traditional "stacked changes" workflow, treating each branch as an atomic changeset that contains (at least to start with) a single commit. If you prefer to start with an empty branch, we support that as well -- see the next section!


The below snippet shows two equivalent ways to create a branch with a single commit on it using gt branch create.

gt branch checkout main
# * build feature part 1 *
# create a new branch off of main with your changes and add a commit
gt add -A # add all unstaged change (same syntax as git add)
gt branch create -m "part 1" # -> creates a commit with message "part 1" on a branch named "05-04-part_1" (inferred from the date and your commit message)
# alternatively, you can combine the last 2 commands into a single line:
gt branch create -a -m "part 1"

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Tip

Because you didn't pass a branch name in the above example, gt branch create auto-generated a branch name from your commit message. You can configure a prefix for gt branch create to add to all of your auto-generated branch names using gt user branch-prefix -- see the configuration page for more details.


Stack more branches on top

Once you have created a branch with your first set of changes, you can continue to build your stack by issuing more gt branch create commands as you work!

# * build feature part 2 *
# create a new branch on your stack
gt branch create -a -m "part 2"
# * build feature part 3 *
# create another new branch on your stack
gt branch create -a -m "part 3"

Now that you've created a stack, you can use Graphite's CLI to easily visualize it in your terminal.

Creating a stack from an existing branch

If you already have a branch that you would like to split up and turn into a stack you can use the gt branch split command. Learn more about gt branch split.