stax 0.41.0 - Docs.rs

Ship small, reviewable PR stacks quickly without giving up safety.

More than stacked branches: stax can merge an entire stack when CI turns green, resolve in-progress rebase conflicts with AI guardrails, run parallel AI worktree lanes as normal tracked branches, and generate PR bodies or standup summaries from the work you actually shipped.

stax installs both binaries: stax and the short alias st. This README uses st.

Live docs: cesarferreira.github.io/stax
Docs index in this repo: docs/index.md

Why stax

Replace one giant PR with a clean stack of small, focused PRs
Keep shipping while lower-stack PRs are still in review
Merge from the bottom automatically when PRs are ready, locally or remotely (st merge --when-ready, st merge --remote)
Resolve in-progress rebase conflicts with AI, limited to the conflicted files (st resolve)
Recover from risky restacks and rewrites immediately (st undo, st redo)
Run parallel AI worktree lanes as normal tracked branches (st wt c ... --agent codex)
Generate PR bodies and spoken standup summaries with your preferred AI agent
Navigate the full stack and diffs from an interactive TUI

Install

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install cesarferreira/tap/stax

# Or cargo-binstall
cargo binstall stax

Prebuilt binaries (no package manager needed)

Download the latest binary from GitHub Releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
# macOS (Intel)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
# Linux (x86_64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar xz

# Move both binaries to ~/.local/bin
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv stax st ~/.local/bin/

# If ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH, add it:
# echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc  # or ~/.bashrc

Windows (x86_64): download stax-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip from GitHub Releases, extract both stax.exe and st.exe, and place them in a directory on your PATH. See Windows notes for shell and worktree limitations.

Verify install:

st --version

60-Second Quick Start

Set up GitHub auth first (required for PR creation, CI checks, and review metadata).

# Option A (recommended): import GitHub CLI auth
gh auth login
st auth --from-gh

# Option B: enter token interactively
st auth

# Option C: env var
export STAX_GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_xxxx"

By default, stax does not use ambient GITHUB_TOKEN unless you opt in with auth.allow_github_token_env = true.

# 1. Create stacked branches
st create auth-api
st create auth-ui

# 2. Inspect stack
st ls
# ◉  auth-ui 1↑
# ○  auth-api 1↑
# ○  main

# 3. Submit PRs for whole stack
st ss

# 4. After auth-api PR is merged on GitHub...

# Pull trunk, detect the merge, delete auth-api, reparent auth-ui → main
st rs

# Rebase auth-ui onto updated main
st restack

# Or do both in one shot:
st rs --restack

Result: two stacked branches, submitted as two linked PRs. After the bottom PR is merged, sync detects it, cleans up, and restack rebases the remaining branch onto trunk.

Picked the wrong trunk branch? Run st trunk main to switch it, or st init --trunk <branch> to reconfigure from scratch.

Next steps:

Core Commands

Command	What it does
`st`	Launch interactive TUI
`st ls`	Show stack with PR/rebase status
`st ll`	Show stack with PR URLs and details
`st create <name>`	Create a branch stacked on current
`st ss`	Submit full stack and create/update PRs
`st merge`	Merge PRs from stack bottom to current
`st merge --when-ready`	Wait/poll until mergeable, then merge
`st merge --remote`	Merge the stack remotely on GitHub while you keep working locally
`st rs`	Sync trunk and clean merged branches (no rebasing)
`st rs --restack`	Sync trunk, clean merged branches, then rebase stack
`st restack`	Rebase current stack onto parents locally (`--stop-here` skips descendants)
`st cascade`	Restack, push, and create/update PRs
`st split`	Split branch into stacked branches (by commit or `--hunk`)
`st undo` / `st redo`	Recover or re-apply risky operations
`st resolve`	Resolve an in-progress rebase conflict with AI and continue automatically
`st standup`	Summarize recent engineering activity
`st pr`	Open the current branch PR in the browser
`st pr list`	Show open pull requests in the current repo
`st issue list`	Show open issues in the current repo
`st generate --pr-body [--no-prompt]`	Generate PR body with AI
`st run <cmd>` (alias: `st test <cmd>`)	Run a command on each branch in stack

For complete command and flag reference: docs/commands/core.md and docs/commands/reference.md.

Key Capabilities

Cascade Stack Merge

Merge from stack bottom up to your current branch with safety checks for CI/readiness.

# Merge from bottom -> current branch
st merge

# Wait for readiness explicitly before merging
st merge --when-ready

# Merge full stack regardless of current position
st merge --all

Safe History Rewriting (Undo/Redo)

stax snapshots branch state before destructive operations (restack, submit, reorder) so recovery is immediate when something goes wrong.

st restack
st undo
st redo

AI Conflict Resolution

When a restack or merge stops on a rebase conflict, st resolve sends only the currently conflicted text files to your configured AI agent, applies the returned resolutions, and continues the rebase automatically.

# Resolve the current rebase conflict with your configured AI agent
st resolve

# Or override the agent/model for one run
st resolve --agent codex --model gpt-5.3-codex

If the AI returns invalid output, touches a non-conflicted file, or leaves more conflicts behind than allowed, stax stops and keeps the rebase in progress so you can inspect or continue manually.

Interactive TUI

Launch with no arguments to browse stacks, inspect the selected branch summary, scroll patches, and run common operations without leaving the terminal.

st

Developer Worktrees

Work on multiple stacks in parallel without losing context. st worktree (alias st wt) creates and manages Git worktree lanes for existing or new branches, with shell integration for transparent cd.

# Open the worktree dashboard (interactive terminals only)
st wt

# One-time shell integration setup
st shell-setup --install   # writes ~/.config/stax/shell-setup.sh and sources it from ~/.zshrc
# Later stax upgrades refresh the generated shell-setup file automatically

# Create a fresh random lane or a named lane
st worktree create
st worktree create payments-api

# List all worktrees (* = current)
st worktree list

# Jump to a worktree (transparent cd via shell function)
st worktree go payments-api
# or the quick alias:
sw payments-api

# Remove when done
st worktree remove payments-api

Shortcuts: st w (list), st wtc [branch] (create), st wtgo <name> (go), st wtrm <name> (remove). In an interactive terminal, bare st wt opens the worktree dashboard and uses tmux-backed re-entry for lanes.

Worktree Lanes For AI

Run 2, 3, or 8 AI coding sessions in parallel without sharing one working directory.

Each lane is an isolated Git worktree with a real branch behind it. When stax creates the branch for a lane, it also writes normal stax metadata, so that lane shows up in st ls, participates in restack/sync/undo, and can be reopened instantly with st wt go.

# Spin up three lanes in parallel
st wt c auth-refresh --agent claude -- "fix token refresh edge cases"
st wt c flaky-tests --agent codex -- "stabilize the flaky test suite"
st wt c ui-polish --run "cursor ."
st wt c review-pass --agent codex --tmux -- "address the open PR comments"

# They are normal stax branches, not hidden scratch dirs
st ls

# Trunk moved while they were running? Restack every managed lane
st wt rs

# Jump back into any lane and continue exactly where you left off
st wt go flaky-tests --agent codex
st wt go review-pass --agent codex --tmux

# Rich status + cleanup
st wt ll
st wt cleanup --dry-run
st wt cleanup
st wt prune
st wt rm auth-refresh --delete-branch

AI PR Body + Standup Summary

Use your configured AI agent to draft PR bodies and generate daily standup summaries.

# Generate/update PR body from branch diff + context
st generate --pr-body

# Generate/update PR body without the review prompt
st generate --pr-body --no-prompt

# Spoken-style standup summary
st standup --summary

Docs Map

If you want to...

Install and configure quickly: docs/getting-started/install.md
Learn stacked branch concepts: docs/concepts/stacked-branches.md
Use day-to-day commands: docs/commands/core.md
Explore full command/flag reference: docs/commands/reference.md
Navigate branches efficiently: docs/commands/navigation.md
Merge, cascade, and keep stacks healthy: docs/workflows/merge-and-cascade.md
Work across multiple worktrees: docs/workflows/multi-worktree.md
Use developer worktrees (st worktree): docs/workflows/multi-worktree.md
Run several AI worktree lanes in parallel: docs/workflows/agent-worktrees.md
Configure auth/branch naming/remote behavior: docs/configuration/index.md
Validate and repair metadata health: docs/commands/stack-health.md

Integrations

AI/editor integration guides:

Claude Code: docs/integrations/claude-code.md
Codex: docs/integrations/codex.md
Gemini CLI: docs/integrations/gemini-cli.md
OpenCode: docs/integrations/opencode.md
PR templates + AI generation: docs/integrations/pr-templates-and-ai.md

Shared skill/instruction file used across agents: skills.md

Performance & Compatibility

Absolute times vary by repo and machine. In the current hyperfine sample for this repo:

st ls ran about 16.25x faster than freephite and 10.05x faster than Graphite.
st rs ran about 2.41x faster than freephite.
stax is freephite/graphite compatible for common stacked-branch workflows.

Details:

Benchmarks: docs/reference/benchmarks.md
Compatibility: docs/compatibility/freephite-graphite.md

Configuration

st config
st config --reset-ai
st config --reset-ai --no-prompt

Config file location:

~/.config/stax/config.toml

Common settings include branch naming format, submit stack-links placement, auth source preferences, and enterprise GitHub API host overrides.

Example:

[submit]
stack_links = "body" # "comment" | "body" | "both" | "off"

If you want stax to reset and immediately re-prompt for the AI agent/model, run:

st config --reset-ai

Use st config --reset-ai --no-prompt to only clear the saved pairing without opening the picker.

Read full config reference: docs/configuration/index.md

Windows Notes

stax builds and runs on Windows (x86_64) with pre-built binaries available from GitHub Releases. Most commands work identically, with the following limitations:

Shell integration is not available. st shell-setup supports bash, zsh, and fish only. On Windows this means:

st wt c and st wt go create/navigate worktrees but cannot auto-cd the parent shell. After running these commands, manually cd to the printed path.
The sw quick alias is not available.
st wt rm (with no argument, to remove the current worktree) cannot relocate the shell automatically. Specify the worktree name explicitly: st wt rm <name>.

Worktree commands still work. st wt c, st wt go, st wt ls, st wt ll, st wt cleanup, st wt rm <name>, st wt prune, and st wt restack all function normally — only the shell-level directory change is missing.

tmux integration requires WSL or a Unix-like environment. The --tmux flag and the worktree dashboard's tmux session management assume a Unix tmux binary is available.

All other stax features — stacked branches, PRs, restack, sync, undo/redo, TUI, AI generation — work on Windows without limitations.

Contributing & License

License: MIT
Before opening a PR, run the repo test command policy from AGENTS.md:

make test
# or
just test

For project docs and architecture, start at docs/index.md.