Using Jujutsu with GitHub and GitLab Projects¶

This guide assumes a basic understanding of either Git or Mercurial.

Set up an SSH key¶

As of October 2023 it's recommended to set up an SSH key to work with GitHub projects. See GitHub's Tutorial. This restriction may be lifted in the future, see issue #469 for more information and progress on authenticated HTTP.

Basic workflow¶

The simplest way to start with Jujutsu is to create a stack of commits first. You will only need to create a bookmark when you need to push the stack to a remote. There are two primary workflows: using a generated bookmark name or naming a bookmark.

Using a generated bookmark name¶

In this example we're letting Jujutsu auto-create a bookmark.

# Start a new commit off of the default bookmark.
$ jj new main
# Refactor some files, then add a description and start a new commit
$ jj commit -m 'refactor(foo): restructure foo()'
# Add a feature, then add a description and start a new commit
$ jj commit -m 'feat(bar): add support for bar'
# Let Jujutsu generate a bookmark name and push that to GitHub. Note that we
# push the working-copy commit's *parent* because the working-copy commit
# itself is empty.
$ jj git push -c @-

Using a named bookmark¶

In this example, we create a bookmark named bar and then push it to the remote.

# Start a new commit off of the default bookmark.
$ jj new main
# Refactor some files, then add a description and start a new commit
$ jj commit -m 'refactor(foo): restructure foo()'
# Add a feature, then add a description and start a new commit
$ jj commit -m 'feat(bar): add support for bar'
# Create a bookmark so we can push it to GitHub. Note that we created the bookmark
# on the working-copy commit's *parent* because the working copy itself is empty.
$ jj bookmark create bar -r @- # `bar` now contains the previous two commits.
# Push the bookmark to GitHub (pushes only `bar`)
$ jj git push --allow-new

While it's possible to create a bookmark in advance and commit on top of it in a Git-like manner, you will then need to move the bookmark manually when you create a new commits. Unlike Git, Jujutsu will not do it automatically.

Updating the repository¶

As of October 2023, Jujutsu has no equivalent to a git pull command (see issue #1039). Until such a command is added, you need to use jj git fetch followed by a jj rebase -d $main_bookmark to update your changes.

Working in a Git co-located repository¶

After doing jj git init --colocate, Git will be in a detached HEAD state, which is unusual, as Git mainly works with bookmarks. In a co-located repository, every jj command will automatically synchronize Jujutsu's view of the repo with Git's view. For example, jj commit updates the HEAD of the Git repository, enabling an incremental migration.

$ nvim docs/tutorial.md
$ # Do some more work.
$ jj commit -m "Update tutorial"
# Create a bookmark on the working-copy commit's parent
$ jj bookmark create doc-update -r @-
$ jj git push --allow-new

Working in a Jujutsu repository¶

In a Jujutsu repository, the workflow is simplified. If there's no need for explicitly named bookmarks, you can just generate one for a change. As Jujutsu is able to create a bookmark for a revision.

$ # Do your work
$ jj commit
$ # Push change "mw", letting Jujutsu automatically create a bookmark called
$ # "push-mwmpwkwknuz"
$ jj git push --change mw

Addressing review comments¶

There are two workflows for addressing review comments, depending on your project's preference. Many projects prefer that you address comments by adding commits to your bookmark¹. Some projects (such as Jujutsu and LLVM) instead prefer that you keep your commits clean by rewriting them and then force-pushing².

Adding new commits¶

If your project prefers that you address review comments by adding commits on top, you can do that by doing something like this:

$ # Create a new commit on top of the `your-feature` bookmark from above.
$ jj new your-feature
$ # Address the comments by updating the code. Then review the changes.
$ jj diff
$ # Give the fix a description and create a new working-copy on top.
$ jj commit -m 'address pr comments'
$ # Update the bookmark to point to the new commit.
$ jj bookmark set your-feature -r @-
$ # Push it to your remote
$ jj git push

Notably, the above workflow creates a new commit for you. The same can be achieved without creating a new commit.

Warning We strongly suggest to jj new after the example below, as all further edits still get amended to the previous commit.

$ # Create a new commit on top of the `your-feature` bookmark from above.
$ jj new your-feature
$ # Address the comments by updating the code. Then review the changes.
$ jj diff
$ # Give the fix a description.
$ jj describe -m 'address pr comments'
$ # Update the bookmark to point to the current commit.
$ jj bookmark set your-feature -r @
$ # Push it to your remote
$ jj git push

Rewriting commits¶

If your project prefers that you keep commits clean, you can do that by doing something like this:

$ # Create a new commit on top of the second-to-last commit in `your-feature`,
$ # as reviewers requested a fix there.
$ jj new your-feature- # NOTE: the trailing hyphen is not a typo!
$ # Address the comments by updating the code. Then review the changes.
$ jj diff
$ # Squash the changes into the parent commit
$ jj squash
$ # Push the updated bookmark to the remote. Jujutsu automatically makes it a
$ # force push
$ jj git push --bookmark your-feature

The hyphen after your-feature comes from the revset syntax.

Working with other people's bookmarks¶

By default, jj git clone imports the default remote bookmark (which is usually main or master), but jj git fetch doesn't import new remote bookmarks to local bookmarks. This means that if you want to iterate or test another contributor's bookmark, you'll need to do jj new <bookmark>@<remote> onto it.

If you want to import all remote bookmarks including inactive ones, set git.auto-local-bookmark = true in the config file. Then you can specify a contributor's bookmark as jj new <bookmark> instead of jj new <bookmark>@<remote>.

You can find more information on that setting here.

Using GitHub CLI¶

GitHub CLI will have trouble finding the proper Git repository path in jj repos that aren't co-located (see issue #1008). You can configure the $GIT_DIR environment variable to point it to the right path:

$ GIT_DIR=.jj/repo/store/git gh issue list

You can make that automatic by installing direnv and defining hooks in a .envrc file in the repository root to configure $GIT_DIR. Just add this line into .envrc:

export GIT_DIR=$PWD/.jj/repo/store/git

and run direnv allow to approve it for direnv to run. Then GitHub CLI will work automatically even in repos that aren't co-located so you can execute commands like gh issue list normally.

Useful Revsets¶

Log all revisions across all local bookmarks that aren't on the main bookmark nor on any remote:

$ jj log -r 'bookmarks() & ~(main | remote_bookmarks())'

Log all revisions that you authored, across all bookmarks that aren't on any remote:

$ jj log -r 'mine() & bookmarks() & ~remote_bookmarks()'

Log all remote bookmarks that you authored or committed to:

$ jj log -r 'remote_bookmarks() & (mine() | committer(your@email.com))'

Log all descendants of the current working copy that aren't on any remote:

$ jj log -r '::@ & ~remote_bookmarks()'

Merge conflicts¶

For a detailed overview, how Jujutsu handles conflicts, revisit the tutorial.

Using several remotes¶

It is common to use several remotes when contributing to a shared repository. For example, "upstream" can designate the remote where the changes will be merged through a pull-request while "origin" is your private fork of the project.

$ jj git clone --remote upstream https://github.com/upstream-org/repo
$ cd repo
$ jj git remote add origin git@github.com:your-org/your-repo-fork

This will automatically setup your repository to track the main bookmark from the upstream repository, typically main@upstream or master@upstream.

You might want to jj git fetch from "upstream" and to jj git push to "origin". You can configure the default remotes to fetch from and push to in your configuration file (for example, .jj/repo/config.toml):

[git]
fetch = "upstream"
push = "origin"

The default for both git.fetch and git.push is "origin".

If you usually work on a project from several computers, you may configure jj to fetch from both repositories by default, in order to keep your own bookmarks synchronized through your origin repository:

[git]
fetch = ["upstream", "origin"]
push = "origin"

This is a GitHub-style review, as GitHub currently only is able to compare bookmarks. ↩
If you're wondering why we prefer clean commits in this project, see e.g. this blog post ↩