git-tailor

git-tailor logo

An interactive terminal tool for tidying up Git commits on a branch — squash, reorder, split, drop, and reword commits before submitting a pull request or pushing to a shared branch.

The left panel shows your commits. The right panel shows a hunk group matrix — a visual aid that instantly reveals which commits touch the same lines of code, and whether combining them would be safe or risky.

⚠ Data safety — please read before use

This tool rewrites history. Always push your branch to a remote before running it. The author takes no responsibility for data loss of any kind. Use at your own risk. See LICENSE for the full disclaimer.

This tool was developed entirely through AI-assisted ("vibe coded") sessions using AI agents. It has been reviewed and tested, but may contain bugs.

Installation

cargo install --locked git-tailor

Requires Rust 1.85 or later.

Usage

gt <base>

<base> identifies the branch or point you forked from — typically the target branch of your pull request (e.g. main or origin/main). It does not need to be a direct ancestor of HEAD: the merge-base (common ancestor) between <base> and HEAD is used as the reference point. All commits between that merge-base and HEAD are shown.

gt main              # commits on top of main
gt origin/main       # commits not yet pushed
gt v1.2.3            # commits since a tag

Flags:

Flag	Description
`--reverse` / `-r`	Show oldest commit at the top
`--full` / `-f`	Show every raw hunk group column without deduplication
`--static` / `-s`	Print the hunk group matrix to stdout and exit (no TUI)
`--no-color`	Disable colors in `--static` output
`--squashable-scope`	controls whether yellow connectors mean per-hunk-group or per-commit squashability

The interface

tui

Each column in the hunk group matrix represents a group of related hunks (a contiguous set of lines in a file that is touched by one or more commits). A square █ in a column means that commit modifies lines in that hunk group. A vertical line │ between two squares is a connector — it means the two commits touch the same hunk group but are separated by other commits.

Color legend — hunk group matrix

Color	Meaning
White square	This commit touches a hunk group that also appears in another commit — potential conflict
Dark gray square	This commit's changes in this hunk group can be cleanly squashed with the related, earlier commit
Yellow connector	From dark gray square, the two commits can be cleanly squashed
Red connector	The two commits touching this hunk group have conflicting changes, reordering or squashing risks a merge conflict

Note that even though the colors indicate cleanly squashable, git may consider the squash causing conflict since git-tailor considers no extra lines of context while git does.

Color legend — commit list

When you select a commit, the other commits are colored relative to it:

Color	Meaning
Yellow	Squashable partner — the currently selected commit can be cleanly squashed into the yellow or vice versa depending on order
Red	Conflicting — the currently selected commit touches the same lines as the red commit; squashing or reordering may cause conflicts
Dark gray	Fully squashable — every hunk group the grey commit touches is squashable; a good candidate to merge into another commit
Normal	No shared hunk groups with the currently selected commit

Key bindings

Navigation

Key	Action
`↑` / `↓`, `j` / `k`	Move selection up/down
`PgUp` / `PgDn`	Move one page up/down
`←` / `→`	Scroll hunk group matrix left/right
`Ctrl ←` / `Ctrl →`	Move the panel separator left/right

Operations

Key	Action
`s`	Squash — merge the selected commit into an earlier one, message can be edited
`f`	Fixup — like squash, but discards the selected commit's message
`m`	Move — pick a new position for the selected commit
`p`	Split — divide the selected commit into smaller commits
`r`	Reword — edit the commit message
`d`	Drop — delete the selected commit entirely

Views and other

Key	Action
`Enter` / `i`	Toggle commit detail view (diff)
`h`	Show help dialog
`u`	Refresh commit list from HEAD
`Esc` / `q`	Close dialog / quit

Attribution

Git-tailor is inspired by tig and fragmap.

The source code of fragmap has been used by AI agents to produce code for this tool — it is derived from or inspired by fragmap, which is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

See NOTICE for full details.

License

Apache License, Version 2.0 — see LICENSE.

git-tailor 0.1.0