Editing Commits in a Stack

The most common stacked-diff operation is “change commit N without losing N+1, N+2…”.

Navigate to target commit

gg mv 2
# or use gg first / gg next / gg prev / gg last

Make changes and fold them in

# after editing files
git add .
gg sc

Use gg sc --all to include unstaged changes too.

Reorder commits

Interactive:

gg reorder

Explicit order:

gg reorder --order "3,1,2"

Absorb scattered staged edits automatically

gg absorb

Useful flags:

--dry-run: preview only
--and-rebase: absorb and rebase in one step
--whole-file: match whole-file changes instead of hunks
--squash: squash fixups directly

After major edits, run:

gg sync

Insert a commit in the middle of a stack

Sometimes you realize a commit is missing between two existing ones. Use gg mv to navigate there, make a normal git commit, then run gg restack to fold it in.

gg co testing
git commit -m "one"
git commit -m "two"

# navigate to position 1 (HEAD detaches)
gg mv 1

# make the new commit
git add <files>
git commit -m "inserted"

# gg ls shows the un-integrated commit rather than losing it:
#   ⚠ Un-integrated commit at HEAD (detached):
#       3fb873d inserted  — sits on top of [1]
#     Run `gg restack` to fold it into the stack.
gg ls

# fold it in — stack becomes: one, inserted, two
# HEAD stays on the inserted commit when restack finishes
gg restack

gg ls is read-only: it never mutates the stack. The “un-integrated commit” callout is purely informational — the commit is not lost, it just isn’t part of the stack yet. gg restack is what integrates it.

The same flow works when you git commit --amend the navigated commit instead of creating a new one. In that case gg restack rewrites the commit in place and replays everything above it on top.