Git Mob - Co-author commits

A command-line tool for social coding

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

✨ Git Mob VS Code extension

• Git Mob - Co-author commits
  • Install
  • Workflow / Usage
    • Add co-author from GitHub
  • Custom setup
    • Using git commit -m setup
      • Using pre-commit to install
    • Revert back to default setup
  • Git Mob config
    • Use local commit template
    • Enable GitHub author fetch
  • More commands
    • List all co-authors
    • Overwrite the main author
    • Add co-author
    • Suggest co-authors
    • Path to .git-coauthors
    • Help
    • Add initials of current mob to your prompt
      • Bash
      • Fish
  • More info

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 global config .gitmessage template to append co-authors.

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 co-authors git-mob uses a JSON file called .git-coauthors, and will try to find it in the following directories:

1. If GITMOB_COAUTHORS_PATH environment variable is set this will override any other settings.
2. If the current Git repository has a .git-coauthors file in the root directory.
3. The default is the users home directory at ~/.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. Also see add co-author command.

$ 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

$ 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]>

Selected co-authors are stored globally meaning when switching between projects your co-authors stay the same*.

*Note: If you've set a local commit template in your config then that template will be updated. However, not when you switch projects and you will see a warning. You can run git mob to update the commit template. Read more here

Add co-author from GitHub

Provide the GitHub username to generate their co-author details. The anonymous GitHub email is used. You need to enable it see config.

$ git mob rkotze
Jane Doe <[email protected]>
Richard Kotze <[email protected]>

Custom setup

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 git hook using [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Add the following to your pre-commit-config.yaml

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/rkotze/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

Git Mob config

Git Mob config is a section in the Git config.

Use local commit template

If you are using a local commit template and want to remove the warning message then set this option to true. Only reads from the local git config.

type: Boolean, scope: local, version: 2.2.0

git config --local git-mob-config.use-local-template true

Enable GitHub author fetch

To fetch authors from GitHub you need to enable it using the config.

type: Boolean, scope: global, version: 2.3.3

git config --global git-mob-config.github-fetch true

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]

Suggest co-authors

Suggest co-authors from contributors in local Git repository and add to .git-coauthors file.

Optional author filter by name or email.

$ git suggest-coauthors [author name | author email]

Path to .git-coauthors

Print out path to .git-coauthors file.

git mob -p

Open co-author file: git mob -p | xargs code

Help

Find out more.

git mob -h

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

More info

See git-mob discussions

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

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