Local Workflow

This page describes the core local .pygit workflow that the project already supports.

Repository Initialization

Create a repository:

python3 -m pygit.cli init

This creates the .pygit directory and the basic repository layout needed for all later commands.

Stage And Commit

Create a file, stage it, and commit it:

echo "hello" > hello.txt
python3 -m pygit.cli add hello.txt
python3 -m pygit.cli commit -m "initial commit"

This flow writes a blob, updates the index, generates a tree, creates a commit, and updates the current branch.

Inspect State

Check the current repository state:

python3 -m pygit.cli status
python3 -m pygit.cli log --oneline

status compares HEAD, the index, and the working tree. log traverses history from the current HEAD.

Branch And Switch

Create and switch to a branch:

python3 -m pygit.cli branch dev
python3 -m pygit.cli switch dev

Or create and switch in one step:

python3 -m pygit.cli switch -c dev

Merge

After making a commit on another branch, merge it back:

python3 -m pygit.cli switch main
python3 -m pygit.cli merge dev

The project supports fast-forward merges, three-way merges, conflict markers, and conflict stages in the index.

Safety Expectations

Commands that rewrite the working tree, such as checkout, switch, and reset --hard, are expected to apply repository-boundary protections. Even so, destructive flows should still be practiced first in test repositories rather than in irreplaceable working directories.