Submit and update a stack

Run jj-stack submit to create pull requests for your stack or update them after local edits. Each change gets one pull request, and the PR order follows your local history. Existing pull requests keep their discussions as you revise the stack.

Submit the current stack

From the head of your stack, run:

jj-stack submit

# Create pull requests for A → B → C
❯ jj-stack submit
Selected: C: add UI (nvwmrnsq)
Submitted changes:
○  nvwmrnsq  C: add UI: PR #3
│
○  orqklzrw  B: add API: PR #2
│
○  knmwrzxz  A: refactor shared model: PR #1
│
◆  trsrmlvw  base
│
Top of stack: PR #3
Created GitHub stack #1.
# Amend C in the scratch working copy
❯ printf 'keyboard navigation\n' >> ui.py
❯ jj squash
Working copy  (@) now at: xmqkktrn dac2361c (empty) (no description set)
Parent commit (@-)      : nvwmrnsq f6a098d7 C: add UI
# Update the same pull requests
❯ jj-stack submit
Selected: C: add UI (nvwmrnsq)
Submitted changes:
○  nvwmrnsq  C: add UI: pushed, PR #3 unchanged
│
○  orqklzrw  B: add API: already pushed, PR #2 unchanged
│
○  knmwrzxz  A: refactor shared model: already pushed, PR #1 unchanged
│
◆  trsrmlvw  base
│
Top of stack: PR #3

To select another stack, pass its head change ID:

jj-stack submit <head-change-id>

Use jj-stack submit --dry-run to preview the changes. Submitting pushes the PR branches and updates GitHub; it does not rewrite your local history.

Titles and descriptions

By default, a change’s subject becomes its pull request title and the rest of its description becomes the body. If there is no body, jj-stack uses the repo’s pull request template, or repeats the subject if no template exists. Later submits refresh this text unless you have customized it.

To edit the planned titles, bodies, and draft states in your editor before anything is pushed:

jj-stack submit --edit

To supply a Markdown file as one pull request’s body:

jj-stack submit --describe <change-id>=pr-body.md

For a stack with several changes, --describe stack=overview.md adds an overview comment to the head pull request. See pull request descriptions for how text updates work, how to reuse an editor file after a failed submit, and how to generate descriptions with a helper program.

Drafts and ready PRs

To create new pull requests as drafts:

jj-stack submit --draft

Existing pull requests keep their draft status. Use jj-stack submit --draft=all to make every PR in the stack a draft, or jj-stack submit --open to mark them ready for review. Use --edit when only some PRs should be drafts.

Reviewers and labels

Set reviewers and labels in your jj config to apply them when pull requests are created or updated. For example, to request review from octocat, add this to your repo config:

[jj-stack]
reviewers = ["octocat"]

Command-line choices replace the corresponding configured defaults for that submit. For example, jj-stack submit --reviewers hubot --label needs-review requests hubot and applies needs-review to the stack’s PRs. Existing labels and reviewer requests on GitHub are left in place.

Explicit reviewer or label requests apply even to unchanged PRs. Configured defaults alone do not cause unchanged PRs to be updated.

After addressing review feedback, you can ask the reviewers who approved or requested changes to look again:

jj-stack submit --re-request

Revision history

After updates, jj-stack maintains a Revision history comment on each PR. It lists the PR’s recent versions with links to the diff between each version and the next, so reviewers can see what changed since their last review.

For edits made directly on GitHub, see work with a stack on GitHub. If you move changes between stacks, follow multiple stacks.