CLI Reference

Branch and History Editing

Work with the repository's local commit graph using only the options accepted by the current alpha.

Local history only

These commands do not discover or update remote-tracking branches. Dits remote transfer fails closed, so examples on this page operate only on commits and refs already present in the local repository.

Command	Current behavior	Usage
branch	List, create, or delete a local branch	dits branch [NAME] [-d]
switch	Switch to an existing local branch	dits switch <BRANCH>
checkout	Check out a local commit or branch	dits checkout <TARGET>
merge	Merge one local branch into the current branch	dits merge <BRANCH> [-m <MESSAGE>]
rebase	Reapply local commits on another base	dits rebase [UPSTREAM] [OPTIONS]
cherry-pick	Apply one or more local commits	dits cherry-pick <COMMIT>... [--no-commit]
tag	List, create, or delete local tags	dits tag [NAME] [OPTIONS]

`dits branch`

With no name, branch lists local branches. With a name it creates a branch at the current commit; --delete removes the named local branch. Rename, copy, force-delete, merged filtering, and remote-listing flags are not accepted by this command.

dits branch
dits branch feature/color-pass
dits branch --delete feature/color-pass

Switch and checkout

switch accepts exactly one existing branch name. checkout accepts a commit or branch target and reconstructs the selected state. The optional checkout mode is full by default; proxy mode belongs to the experimental media path.

dits switch feature/color-pass
dits checkout main
dits checkout <commit-id>

# Experimental proxy checkout path
dits checkout main --mode proxy

`dits merge`

Merges one named local branch into the current branch. The only command option is an optional merge-commit message.

dits merge feature/color-pass
dits merge feature/color-pass --message "Merge color pass"

Conflict handling is still alpha

Inspect dits status after a conflict and keep an independent backup. The current restore command does not provide complete merge-conflict resolution for every path.

`dits rebase`

Rebase accepts an optional upstream plus --onto, --continue, --abort, or --skip. Interactive rebase is not implemented.

dits rebase main
dits rebase main --onto <commit-id>
dits rebase --continue
dits rebase --skip
dits rebase --abort

Rebase changes commit identities

Avoid rebasing history after distributing a repository copy through another tool or process. Dits has no working remote to coordinate that rewrite for you.

`dits cherry-pick`

dits cherry-pick <commit-id>
dits cherry-pick <first-commit> <second-commit>
dits cherry-pick --no-commit <commit-id>

`dits tag`

With no name, tag lists local tags. Create a tag by name, optionally selecting a commit with --commit. Delete with--delete. Listing can be sorted by name, created, or version; because current tags do not store creation timestamps, created presently falls back to name order. Annotated tags and tag pushing are not current features.

dits tag
dits tag review-ready
dits tag review-ready --commit <commit-id>
dits tag --sort created
dits tag review-ready --delete

Use dits <command> --help for parser-authoritative syntax. See history inspection and the disabled remote status for the adjacent workflows.