CLI Graphite

Graphite Skill

Work with Graphite (gt) for creating, navigating, and managing stacked pull requests.

Quick Reference

What Makes a Good PR?

In roughly descending order of importance:

• Atomic/hermetic - independent of other changes; will pass CI and be safe to deploy on its own
• Narrow semantic scope - changes only to module X, or the same change across modules X, Y, Z
• Small diff - (heuristic) small total diff line count

Do NOT worry about creating TOO MANY pull requests. It is always preferable to create more pull requests than fewer.

NO CHANGE IS TOO SMALL: tiny PRs allow for the medium/larger-sized PRs to have more clarity.

Always argue in favor of creating more PRs, as long as they independently pass build.

Branch Naming Conventions

When naming PRs in a stack, follow this syntax:

terse-stack-feature-name/terse-description-of-change

For example, a 4 PR stack:

auth-bugfix/reorder-args
auth-bugfix/improve-logging
auth-bugfix/improve-documentation
auth-bugfix/handle-401-status-codes

Creating a Stack

Basic Workflow

1. Make changes to files
2. Stage changes: git add <files>
3. Create branch: gt create branch-name -m "commit message"
4. Repeat for each PR in the stack
5. Submit: gt submit --no-interactive

Handle Untracked Branches (common with worktrees)

Before creating branches, check if the current branch is tracked:

gt branch info

If you see "ERROR: Cannot perform this operation on untracked branch":

Option A (Recommended): Track temporarily, then re-parent

1. Track current branch: gt track -p main
2. Create your stack normally with gt create
3. After creating ALL branches, re-parent your first new branch onto main:

   gt checkout <first-branch-of-your-stack>
   gt track -p main
   gt restack
   

Option B: Stash changes and start from main

1. git stash
2. git checkout main && git pull
3. Create new branch and unstash: git checkout -b temp-working && git stash pop
4. Proceed with gt track -p main and gt create

Navigating a Stack

# Move up one branch (toward top of stack)
gt up

# Move down one branch (toward trunk)
gt down

# Jump to top of stack
gt top

# Jump to bottom of stack (first branch above trunk)
gt bottom

# View the full stack structure
gt ls

Modifying a Stack

Commit vs Amend

Graphite has explicit commit commands that also auto-restack descendants:

git add <files>
gt commit create -m "add validation for email field"  # New commit (preferred)
gt commit amend -m "updated commit message"            # Amend last commit
# Shorthands: gt cc -m "...", gt ca -m "..."

Use gt commit create (gt cc) by default unless the user explicitly asks to amend or squash. gt modify also works (amends by default, -c for new commit) but the gt commit subcommands are clearer.

Reorder Branches

Use gt move to reorder branches in the stack. This is simpler than trying to use gt create --insert.

Re-parent a Stack

If you created a stack on top of a feature branch but want it based on main:

# Go to first branch of your stack
gt checkout <first-branch>

# Change its parent to main
gt track --parent main

# Rebase the entire stack
gt restack

Rename a Branch

gt rename new-branch-name

Resetting Commits to Unstaged Changes

If changes are already committed but you want to re-stack them differently:

# Reset the last commit, keeping changes unstaged
git reset HEAD^

# Reset multiple commits (e.g., last 2 commits)
git reset HEAD~2

# View the diff to understand what you're working with
git diff HEAD

Before Submitting

Verify Stack is Rooted on Main

Before running gt submit, verify the first PR is parented on main:

gt ls

If the first branch has a parent other than main:

gt checkout <first-branch>
gt track -p main
gt restack

Run Validation

After creating each PR, run appropriate linting, building, and testing:

1. Refer to the project's CLAUDE.md for specific commands
2. If validation fails, fix the issue, stage changes, and use gt cc -m "fix: ..." (or gt ca to amend)

Submitting and Updating PRs

Submit the Stack

gt submit --no-interactive

Update PR Descriptions

After submitting, use gh pr edit to set proper titles and descriptions.

IMPORTANT: Never use Bash heredocs for PR descriptions - shell escaping breaks markdown tables, code blocks, etc. Instead:

1. Use the Write tool to create /tmp/pr-body.md with the full markdown content
2. Use gh pr edit with --body-file:

gh pr edit <PR_NUMBER> --title "stack-name: description" --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md

PR descriptions must include:

• Stack Context: What is the bigger goal of this stack?
• What? (optional for small changes): Super terse, focus on what not why
• Why?: What prompted the change? Why this solution? How does it fit into the stack?

Example (for a PR in a 3-PR stack adding a warning feature):

## Stack Context

This stack adds a warning on the merge button when users are bypassing GitHub rulesets.

## Why?

Users who can bypass rulesets (via org admin or team membership) currently see no indication
they're circumventing branch protection. This PR threads the bypass data from the server to
enable the frontend warning (PR 2) to display it.

Troubleshooting

Advanced: Surgical Rebasing in Complex Stacks

In deeply nested stacks with many sibling branches, gt restack can be problematic:

• It restacks ALL branches that need it, not just your stack
• Can hit conflicts in completely unrelated branches
• Is all-or-nothing - hard to be surgical

When to Use git rebase Instead of gt restack

Use direct git rebase when:

• You only want to update specific branches in your stack
• gt restack is hitting conflicts in unrelated branches
• You need to skip obsolete commits during the rebase

Targeted Rebase Workflow

# 1. Checkout the branch you want to rebase
git checkout my-feature-branch

# 2. Rebase onto the target (e.g., updated parent branch)
git rebase target-branch

# 3. If you hit conflicts:
#    - Resolve the conflict in the file
#    - Stage it: git add <file>
#    - Continue: git rebase --continue

# 4. If a commit is obsolete and should be skipped:
git rebase --skip

# 5. After rebase, sync graphite's tracking (amend is correct here)
gt modify --no-edit

Recovering from Interrupted Rebase (Context Reset)

If a rebase was interrupted (e.g., Claude session ran out of context):

1. Check status:

   git status
   # Look for "interactive rebase in progress" and "Unmerged paths"
   

2. Read the "unmerged" files - they may already be resolved (no conflict markers)

3. If already resolved, just stage and continue:

   git add <resolved-files>
   git rebase --continue
   

4. If still has conflict markers, resolve them first, then stage and continue

Deleting Branches from a Stack

# Delete a branch (non-interactive, even if not merged)
gt delete branch-to-delete -f -q

# Also delete all children (upstack)
gt delete branch-to-delete -f -q --upstack

# Also delete all ancestors (downstack)
gt delete branch-to-delete -f -q --downstack

Flags:

• -f / --force: Delete even if not merged or closed
• -q / --quiet: Implies --no-interactive, minimizes output

After deleting intermediate branches, children are automatically restacked onto the parent. If you need to manually update tracking:

gt checkout child-branch
gt track --parent new-parent-branch