Git Mob

A command-line tool for social coding

Includes co-authors in commits when you collaborate on code. Use when pairing with a buddy or mobbing with your team.

Read our blog post to find out why git-mob exists: Co-author commits with Git Mob

New Git Mob VS Code extension

1. Install
2. Using git commit -m
3. Workflow / Usage
4. More commands
   1. List all co-authors
   2. Overwrite the main author
   3. Add co-author
   4. Delete co-author
   5. Edit co-author
   6. Add initials of current mob to PS1, in bash and fish

Install

git-mob is a CLI tool, so you'll need to install the package globally.

npm i -g git-mob

By default git-mob will use the .gitmessage template to append co-authors.

Using git commit -m setup

How to append co-authors to the message when using message flag - git commit -m "commit message"?

1. Add prepare-commit-msg hook file in .git/hooks dir. See hook-examples
2. The hook will need to be executable chmod +x prepare-commit-msg

prepare-commit-msg will need a script to read the co-authors, which can be done via git mob-print. See hook-examples folder for working scripts.

The command git mob-print will output to stdout the formatted co-authors.

Note: > v1.1.0 git mob --installTemplate and git mob --uninstallTemplate has been removed.

Using pre-commit to install

You can install the githook using pre-commit. Add the following to your pre-commit-config.yaml

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/findmypast-oss/git-mob
    rev: {tag-version}
    hooks:
      - id: add-coauthors
        stages: ["prepare-commit-msg"]

And install with: pre-commit install --hook-type prepare-commit-msg.

Removing the above snippet and running git commit will uninstall the pre-commit hook

Revert back to default setup

1. Remove relevant scripts prepare-commit-msg file

Workflow / Usage

With git-mob, the primary author will always be the primary user of the computer. Set your author info in git if you haven't done so before.

$ git config --global user.name "Jane Doe"
$ git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

To keep track of potential co-authors, git-mob uses a JSON file called ~/.git-coauthors. Here's a template of its structure.

{
  "coauthors": {
    "<initials>": {
      "name": "<name>",
      "email": "<email>"
    }
  }
}

Start by adding a few co-authors that you work with.

$ cat <<-EOF > ~/.git-coauthors
{
  "coauthors": {
    "ad": {
      "name": "Amy Doe",
      "email": "[email protected]"
    },
    "bd": {
      "name": "Bob Doe",
      "email": "[email protected]"
    }
  }
}
EOF

You're ready to create your mob. Tell git-mob you're pairing with Amy by using her initials.

$ git mob ad
Jane Doe <[email protected]>
Amy Doe <[email protected]>

Commit like you normally would. You should see Co-authored-by: Amy Doe <[email protected]> appear at the end of the commit message.

Let's add Bob to the group to create a three-person mob.

$ git mob ad bd
Jane Doe <[email protected]>
Amy Doe <[email protected]>
Bob Doe <[email protected]>

Once you're done mobbing, switch back to developing solo.^*

$ git solo
Jane Doe <[email protected]>

More commands

List all co-authors

Check which co-authors you have available in your .git-coauthors file.

$ git mob --list
jd Jane Doe [email protected]
ad Amy Doe [email protected]
bd Bob Doe [email protected]

Overwrite the main author

Overwrite the current author which could be useful for pairing on different machines

If the current author is: Bob Doe

$ git mob -o jd ad
jd Jane Doe [email protected]
ad Amy Doe [email protected]

Now the author has changed to Jane Doe.

Add co-author

Add a new co-author to your .git-coauthors file.

$ git add-coauthor bb "Barry Butterworth" [email protected]

Delete co-author

Delete a co-author from your .git-coauthors file.

$ git delete-coauthor bb

Edit co-author

Edit a co-author's details in your .git-coauthors file.

$ git edit-coauthor bb --name="Barry Butterworth" --email="[email protected]"
$ git edit-coauthor bb --name="Barry Butterworth"
$ git edit-coauthor bb --email="[email protected]"

Suggest co-authors base on current repo

Suggest some co-authors to add based on existing committers to your current repo

$ git suggest-coauthors

Add initials of current mob to your prompt

Bash

Add the initials to PS1, in ~/.bashrc

function git_initials {
  local initials=$(git mob-print --initials)
  if [[ -n "${initials}" ]]; then
    echo " [${initials}]"
  fi
}

export PS1="\$(pwd)\$(git_initials) -> "

Fish

Add the following functions to .config/fish/config.fish

function git_initials --description 'Print the initials for who I am currently pairing with'
  set -lx initials (git mob-print --initials)
  if test -n "$initials"
    printf ' [%s]' $initials
  end
end

function fish_prompt
  printf "%s%s ->" (pwd) (git_initials)
end

^{* If you have git-duet installed, you'll need to uninstall it since it conflicts with the git-solo command.}

Find out more with git mob -h