debase

drag & drop git editing from the comfort of your terminal

debase

move
move commits by dragging them

commits can be moved within a branch or across branches

copy
copy commits by holding option / alt while dragging them

combine
combine multiple commits with the action menu or by pressing c

commit messages are coalesced automatically

edit message
change a commit message with the action menu or by pressing return

the author and date can be modified in addition to the commit message

delete
delete commits with the action menu or by pressing delete

branch
create branches from a particular commit by using the action menu or by pressing b

rename, duplicate, and delete branches by using the action menu on the branch title

resolve
resolve conflicts without leaving debase, or optionally using your default text editor

undo
all edits are recorded so they can be undone or redone

undo/redo history persists across debase invocations

snapshots
a snapshot is captured before a branch is modified, so no change is irreversible

snapshots remain accessible even after exiting debase, or modifying the branch outside of debase

branches & tags
all editing features support both branches and tags

macOS & Linux
debase supports macOS and Linux

Questions & Answers

Why should I trust debase?

The short answer is you shouldn't!

Or, better phrased: it's wise to exercise caution around any tool that touches your git repository, especially those that rewrite git history. debase is exactly that kind of tool, so having some distrust is not only reasonable but encouraged. In that spirit of caution, for example, it's recommended to perform your initial debase experimentation on a copy of your repository rather than the original.

With that said, the factors below may make you feel more confident about using debase:

debase uses libgit2 to perform git operations. libgit2 is in widespread use among git utilities so it's a reasonably safe bet.
debase provides unlimited undo history that persists across debase invocations. If something goes wrong, you can relaunch debase and undo the change.
debase takes a snapshot of a branch before it's modified. Similar to undo, snapshots ensure that you can restore a branch back to its state before any debase change.
git exposes the history of all changes through git reflog, so in a hypothetical doomsday scenario, you can find old commit hashes and bring them back to life without relying on debase's recovery features at all.
debase is open source.
Take a look if you still have doubts!

How are snapshots and undo different?

Both snapshots and undo allow you to restore a branch to a previous state, but there are two important differences:

snapshots allow you to restore a branch to its state as it existed at the beginning of a debase session, while undo allows you to revert granular changes made to a branch. Snapshots are captured once per debase session before the first change is made to a branch.
snapshots persist forever, while undo is only available if the HEAD of the branch upon launching debase is the same as when debase last exited. That should be somewhat intuitive because it typically doesn't make sense to undo a change upon a newer (or older) version of a branch than when the change was originally made.

How can I remove debase?

You can remove debase from your system by deleting the debase binary ($ which debase) and removing the debase state directory.

The state directory is stored in different locations depending on your system:

macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/llc.toaster.debase
Linux: ~/.config/llc.toaster.debase

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