jj-vine 0.3.0

Stacked pull requests for jj (jujutsu). Supports GitLab and bookmark-based flow.
Documentation

jj-vine

A tool for submitting stacked Pull/Merge Requests from Jujutsu bookmarks.

Supports the following code forges:

The canonical location for jj-vine is codeberg.org/abrenneke/jj-vine. GitHub is used as a mirror and CI only.

Table of Contents

Overview

As jj is so flexible, it can sometimes be tedious to manage pull requests for a jj repository. Additionally, many people like the "stacked pull request" workflow, where a tool can manage your stack of pull requests for you, including modifying the base branch, description, and other settings. jj-vine aims to smooth out the process of managing pull requests for a jj repository.

There are many tools these days that aim to solve this problem, most notably jj-spr and jj-stack. jj-vine has its own preferred workflow and design choices, and is not a direct replacement for these tools. jj-vine supports multiple code forges: GitLab, GitHub, Forgejo, and Azure DevOps (including self-hosted instances).

Major differences:

  • jj-vine is bookmark-based, rather than change-based. It expects you to create your bookmarks before submitting them, and usually expects you to push them (e.g. jj git push -c @) as well. This means that you can have multiple commits in each pull request.
  • jj-spr aims to more be a full workflow rather than a lightweight tool. jj-vine is less opinionated.
  • jj-vine is primarily based around the submit --tracked command. This submits all (your) tracked bookmarks at once. Other tools often require you to submit each bookmark individually. The idea is to simply "sync your current state to the code forge".

Main Features

  • Stacked pull/merge request creation

    Automatically creates pull/merge requests with correct base branches based on bookmark dependencies.

  • Stack visualization

    Adds a navigable stack diagram to pull/merge request descriptions with links to related pull/merge requests. Can be customized and disabled.

  • Unopinionated

    jj-vine is not opinionated about how you should structure your commits, bookmarks, and pull/merge requests. It can work with what you have. It also works great with auto-generated bookmarks.

  • Complex branching

    Not only does jj-vine support trees of bookmarks, but it fully supports complex (DAG) graphs of changes just like jj itself does. While actual forge support for PRs/MRs with multiple parents may be limited, jj-vine can still visualize and manage them.

  • Status

    Can easily report the status of your bookmarks and their pull/merge requests.

  • Automatic syncing

    Updates pull/merge request base branches & all related descriptions when stack structure changes.

Planned Features

  • Automatic rebasing

    Once a pull/merge request is merged, rebases the stack on top of the trunk

  • Landing

    Merge a pull request and automatically rebase dependent pull/merge requests on top of the trunk

Installation

Cargo Binstall

The preferred way to install jj-vine is to use cargo-binstall:

# Will put the binary in $HOME/.cargo/bin
cargo binstall jj-vine

Pre-built Binaries

Pre-built binaries are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows (ARM64 and x86_64 for all). You can download directly from the releases page.

Binaries are built with GitHub attestations. You may verify the provenance of a binary by running:

gh attestation verify <binary> -R abrenneke/jj-vine

Alias Setup

You can set up a jj alias to make it easier to use jj-vine. Aliases that work great are jj pr, jj mr, or jj vine. You can run the following command to install an alias:

# Take your pick:
jj config set --user aliases.pr '["util", "exec", "--", "jj-vine"]'
jj config set --user aliases.mr '["util", "exec", "--", "jj-vine"]'
jj config set --user aliases.vine '["util", "exec", "--", "jj-vine"]'

Quick Start

  1. Run jj vine init to set up your code forge configuration for your repository. This is stored in .jj/repo/config.toml. You may also move any configuration settings to the global config file ~/.config/jj/config.toml.

    jj vine init

  2. Push up some bookmarks (auto-generated bookmarks work great!)

    jj new main

jj commit -m "Add feature A"
# Make some changes
jj git push -c @-

jj commit -m "Add feature B"
# Make some changes
jj git push -c @-

  3. Submit all tracked bookmarks at once:

    jj vine submit --tracked

    This creates two pull requests:

    • feature-a targeting main
    • feature-b targeting feature-a

Commands

submit

Submit a bookmark and its dependencies as pull requests.

# Submit a single bookmark or revset (and its dependencies!)
jj vine submit <revset/bookmark>
jj vine submit -r <revset/bookmark>

# Submit all tracked bookmarks. Roughly equivalent to `(mine() & tracked_remote_bookmarks()) ~ trunk()`, but has additional stipulations. See `jj-vine submit --help` for more details.
# This is the recommended command to use!
jj vine submit --tracked

# Preview without making changes
jj vine submit <options> --dry-run

See all options and additional help with jj-vine submit --help.

init

Interactive setup wizard to configure jj-vine for your repository.

jj vine init

status

Show the status of tracked bookmarks and their pull/merge requests.

# Show the status of all my bookmarks
jj vine status

# Show the status of all tracked bookmarks
jj vine status --tracked

# Show the status of a specific revset that includes bookmarks
jj vine status -r <revset>

The output will look roughly like this (but with colors):

!100 "This is the title of the first merge request"
     push-xxxxxxxa • ✓ Checks OK • Needs approval (0/1) • 2 open discussions • 24d 21h old • https://forge-url.example/100

!101 "This is the title of the second merge request"
     push-xxxxxxxb • [READY] • ✓ Checks OK • Approved (1/1) • 16d 18h old • https://forge-url.example/101

!102 "Third title"
     push-xxxxxxxc • ✓ Checks OK • Needs approval (0/1) • 5d 6h old • https://forge-url.example/102

!103 "Fourth merge request title"
     push-xxxxxxxd • ✓ Checks OK • Needs approval (0/1) • 19h old • https://forge-url.example/103

!104 "Fifth title"
     push-xxxxxxxe • ✗ Checks failing • Needs approval (0/1) • 1 open discussion • 19h old • https://forge-url.example/104

wip No merge request

wip-2 No merge request

See all options and additional help with jj-vine status --help.

Configuration

Configuration is stored in jj's configuration system under the jj-vine section. You can use jj config edit --repo to edit the configuration for a specific repository or jj config edit --user to edit the global configuration. You can also use jj config set --repo <key> <value> to set a configuration value for a specific repository:

jj config set --repo jj-vine.deleteSourceBranch true
jj config set --repo jj-vine.defaultReviewers '["alice", "bob"]'

Forge-Specific Settings

All listed settings are under the jj-vine section so should be prefixed with jj-vine..

Forge

Ad a minimum, the jj-vine.forge configuration setting must be set to the type of forge you are using.

Setting Description Type Required Default
forge The type of forge you are using "gitlab" | "github" | "forgejo" | "azure" Yes -

GitLab

Required when jj-vine.forge is set to gitlab.

Setting Description Type Required Default
gitlab.host GitLab instance URL (e.g., https://gitlab.example.com) String Yes -
gitlab.project Project ID where branches are pushed (group/project or numeric ID like 12345) String Yes -
gitlab.token Personal Access Token with api scope String Yes -
gitlab.target_project Target project ID for merge requests (e.g., upstream/project). Use if you are using a fork. String No (same as gitlab.project)

GitHub

Required when jj-vine.forge is set to github.

Setting Description Type Required Default
github.host GitHub API URL (defaults to https://api.github.com for GitHub.com, or https://github.example.com/api/v3 for Enterprise) String Yes -
github.project Repository where branches are pushed in owner/repo format String Yes -
github.token Personal Access Token with repo scope String Yes -
github.target_project Target repository for pull requests (e.g., upstream-owner/repo). Use if you are using a fork. String No (same as github.project)

Forgejo/Codeberg/Gitea

Required when jj-vine.forge is set to forgejo.

Setting Description Type Required Default
forgejo.host Forgejo/Codeberg/Gitea instance URL (e.g., https://codeberg.org) String Yes -
forgejo.project Repository where branches are pushed in owner/repo format String Yes -
forgejo.token API access token with repo scope String Yes -
forgejo.target_project Target repository for pull requests (e.g., upstream-owner/repo). Use if you are using a fork. String No (same as forgejo.project)
forgejo.wip_prefix Prefix for WIP/draft pull requests. What counts as a draft pull request is configurable per-repository on Forgejo. String No "WIP: "

Azure DevOps

Required when jj-vine.forge is set to azure.

Setting Description Type Required Default
azure.host Azure DevOps instance URL (e.g., https://dev.azure.com) String Yes -
azure.vsspsHost Azure DevOps Security (VSSP) host (e.g., https://vssps.dev.azure.com). Used to look up other users for automatic review requests. String No -
azure.project Organization and project where branches are pushed, formatted as organization/project String Yes -
azure.sourceRepositoryName Name of the repository in the project where branches are pushed String Required if azure.source_repository_id is not set -
azure.sourceRepositoryId ID of the repository in the project where branches are pushed String Required if azure.source_repository_name is not set -
azure.token Personal Access Token String Yes -
azure.targetProject Target organization & project for pull requests (e.g., upstream-organization/project). Use if you are using a fork. String No (same as azure.project)
azure.targetRepositoryName Name of the repository in the target project for pull requests String Required if azure.targetRepositoryId is not set and azure.targetProject is different from azure.project -
azure.targetRepositoryId ID of the repository in the target project for pull requests String Required if azure.targetRepositoryName is not set and azure.targetProject is different from azure.project -

Common Settings

These settings apply to all forges:

Setting Description Type Required Default
remoteName The remote name to use for pushing and pulling branches String No "origin"
deleteSourceBranch Configures the pull/merge request to delete the source branch when merged. Currently has no effect for GitHub and Forgejo (is a repository-level setting and on-merge flag only) Boolean No true
squashCommits Configures the pull/merge request to squash commits when merging. Currently has no effect for GitHub and Forgejo (is a repository-level setting and on-merge flag only) Boolean No false
assignToSelf Automatically assign created pull/merge requests to yourself. Has no effect for AzureDevOps Boolean No false
defaultReviewers List of usernames to automatically add as reviewers when creating pull/merge requests. For Azure DevOps, this should be a list of "user descriptors" and azure.vsspsHost must be set Array No []
caBundle Path to CA certificate bundle for custom TLS String | null No null
tlsAcceptNonCompliantCerts Accept non-compliant TLS certificates (for certificates that don't meet strict X.509 standards). This is almost always unnecessary unless you have a unique situation. Boolean No false
defaultBaseBranch Default target branch for pull/merge requests into trunk() String No (detected automatically using the trunk() revset)
openAsDraft Open newly created pull/merge requests as drafts Boolean No false
description Configuration for pull/merge request description generation Object (see below) No (see below)

Description Generation / Stack Visualization

jj-vine can generate stack diagrams for pull/merge requests and add them to the descriptions of pull/merge requests. When enabled, every time you submit your bookmark(s), the descriptions for all impacted pull/merge requests will be updated as well.

Configuration

Setting Description Type Required Default
description.enabled Whether to enable or disable description generation entirely. If false, pull/merge request descriptions will not be touched Boolean No true
description.format How to render the description for different types of merge request stacks Object No (see next rows)
description.format.single How to render a single pull/merge request, without any parents or children besides the trunk "none" | "linear" | "tree" No "none"
description.format.linear How to render a linear stack of bookmarks. This means that no tracked bookmark has multiple parents or multiple children "none" | "linear" | "tree" No "linear"
description.format.tree How to render a tree of bookmarks, where two bookmarks merge into a common parent, but no bookmark has multiple parents "none" | "linear" | "tree" No "tree"
description.format.complex How to render a complex (DAG) graph of bookmarks, where any bookmark has multiple parents. Because forges only support a pull/merge request merging into a single parent, in this situation you may see commits of one pull/merge request included in other pull/merge requests "none" | "linear" | "tree" No "complex"

The following sections show examples of the different formats.

Linear Format

Linear/Single Bookmark Stack

(description.format.single = "linear" and description.format.linear = "linear")

This PR is part of a stack containing 5 PRs:

  1. main
  2. #1 "Feature A"
  3. "Feature B" ← this PR
  4. #3 "Feature C"
  5. #4 "Feature D"
  6. #5 "Feature E"

Tree Bookmarks

(description.format.tree = "linear")

This PR is part of a tree containing 8 PRs:

  1. main
  2. #1 "Feature A" → main
  3. #4 "Feature D" → #1
  4. #2 "Feature B" → #1
  5. "Feature E" → #2 ← this PR
  6. #3 "Feature C" → #2
  7. #7 "Feature G" → #3
  8. #8 "Feature H" → #7
  9. #6 "Feature F" → #3

Complex Graph of Bookmarks

(description.format.complex = "linear")

This PR is part of a complex set of PRs containing 10 PRs:

  1. main
  2. #9 "Feature I" → main
  3. #10 "Feature J" → #9
  4. #1 "Feature A" → main
  5. #2 "Feature B" → #1
  6. "Feature E" → #2, #10 ← this PR
  7. #4 "Feature D" → #1, #2
  8. #3 "Feature C" → #2
  9. #7 "Feature G" → #3, #5, #10
  10. #8 "Feature H" → #7
  11. #6 "Feature F" → #3, #9

Tree Format

Linear/Single Bookmark Stack

(description.format.single = "tree" and description.format.linear = "tree")

This PR is part of a stack containing 5 PRs:

  • main

    • #1 "Feature A"

      • "Feature B" ← this MR

        • #3 "Feature C"

          • #4 "Feature D"

            • #5 "Feature E"

Tree of Bookmarks

(description.format.tree = "tree")

This PR is part of a tree containing 8 PRs:

  • main

    • #1 "Feature A"

      1. #2 "Feature B"

        1. #3 "Feature C"

          1. #7 "Feature G"

            • #8 "Feature H"

          2. #6 "Feature F"

        2. "Feature E" ← this PR

      2. #4 "Feature D"

Complex Graph of Bookmarks

(description.format.complex = "tree")

This PR is part of a complex set of PRs containing 10 PRs:

  • main

    1. #9 "Feature I"

      1. #10 "Feature J"

        1. #7 "Feature G" (→ #3, #5 also)

          • #8 "Feature H"

        2. "Feature E" (→ #2 also) ← this PR

          • #7 "Feature G" (→ #3, #10 also)

            • #8 "Feature H"

      2. #6 "Feature F" (→ #3 also)

    2. #1 "Feature A"

      1. #2 "Feature B"

        1. "Feature E" (→ #10 also) ← this PR

          • #7 "Feature G" (→ #3, #10 also)

            • #8 "Feature H"

        2. #3 "Feature C"

          1. #7 "Feature G" (→ #5, #10 also)

            • #8 "Feature H"

          2. #6 "Feature F" (→ #9 also)

        3. #4 "Feature D" (→ #1 also)

      2. #4 "Feature D" (→ #2 also)

Credits

  • jj-spr heavily for inspiration & code approaches
  • jj-stack heavily for inspiration & code approaches

FAQs

Is this vibe-coded slop?

Don't worry, I berated Claude with profanity until things looked good.

Ok, but really?

Nah. It may have started out as a test to see how well Claude Code was (conclusion: meh not great), but large swathes of the code has been rewritten by hand at this point. AI-generated code is so verbose and inelegant at times, often 2x the size of the hand-written code that uses Rust best practices. I'm not against AI coding, nor think it will replace developers. Be measured, people.

There are a decent amount of tests, but there could always be more.

Why a new project?

Well primarily, existing tools did not support GitLab (though jj-vine now supports GitLab, GitHub, Forgejo, and Azure DevOps). jj-spr was too heavy-handed - it imposes a strict "one pull request per commit" workflow. jj-stack was in TypeScript (nothing against it, but seems sane for a jj tool to also be built in Rust). My current jj workflow was also just different enough that those existing tools did not fit my needs.

Contributing

All contributions extremely welcome! Please feel free to open an issue or pull request. See CONTRIBUTING.djot for more details.

License

MIT License