hitch

Hitch

A Git workflow manager for multi-environment development teams

Hitch simplifies managing feature branches across multiple deployment environments (dev, qa, production) by treating environment branches as hitched branches - ephemeral, reconstructible branches that are "hitched" to a specific feature list rather than having permanent independent histories.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap DoomedRamen/hitch
brew install hitch

curl (macOS/Linux)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/main/install.sh | bash

Go Install

go install github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/cmd/hitch@latest

Manual Download

Download pre-built binaries from GitHub Releases:

# macOS ARM64 (M1/M2/M3)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/releases/latest/download/hitch_<version>_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz
sudo mv hitch /usr/local/bin/

# macOS AMD64 (Intel)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/releases/latest/download/hitch_<version>_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar -xz
sudo mv hitch /usr/local/bin/

# Linux AMD64
curl -fsSL https://github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/releases/latest/download/hitch_<version>_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar -xz
sudo mv hitch /usr/local/bin/

# Linux ARM64
curl -fsSL https://github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch/releases/latest/download/hitch_<version>_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz
sudo mv hitch /usr/local/bin/

# Windows AMD64
# Download from releases page and add to PATH

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/DoomedRamen/hitch.git
cd hitch
go build -o hitch ./cmd/hitch
sudo mv hitch /usr/local/bin/

Overview

The Problem

Traditional multi-environment Git workflows lead to:

• Divergent histories between dev, qa, and main branches
• Merge conflicts when trying to sync environments
• Stale feature branches that fall out of sync with main
• Manual cherry-picking to untangle mixed changes
• Periodic branch deletion to reset environments and restore sanity

Example of the Mess:

Developer M: feature/xyz → dev → qa → main
Developer S: feature/abc → dev
Developer R: feature/lmp (branched from old main, now out of sync!)

After a few iterations, dev and qa have different histories than main, feature branches are stale, and the team resorts to deleting and recreating environment branches.

The Hitch Solution

Hitch treats dev and qa as hitched branches - branches that are "hitched" to a specific feature list:

qa = main + feature/xyz + feature/lmp + bug/473
dev = main + feature/xus + feature/lmp + bug/473

Key principles:

1. main is the source of truth - all feature branches originate from main
2. Hitched branches are rebuilt - dev and qa are reconstructed on-demand from their feature lists
3. Metadata tracks state - a special hitch-metadata branch stores which features are in each environment
4. Automatic locking - prevents concurrent modifications during rebuilds
5. Lifecycle management - identifies and cleans up stale branches

Features

• 🔄 Environment promotion: Move features between dev → qa → main
• 🔒 Automatic locking: Prevents race conditions during rebuilds
• 🧹 Stale branch cleanup: Identifies branches safe to delete
• 📊 Status overview: See which features are in each environment
• 🎯 Merge conflict detection: Alerts when features conflict
• 🪝 Git hook integration: Optional hitch hook commands for your existing hooks

Quick Start

# Initialize Hitch in your repository
cd your-repo
hitch init

# Create a feature branch
git checkout -b feature/new-login
# ... make changes ...
git push origin feature/new-login

# Promote to dev environment
hitch promote feature/new-login to dev

# Check status
hitch status

# Promote to qa
hitch promote feature/new-login to qa

# Release to main
hitch release feature/new-login

# Clean up stale branches
hitch cleanup --dry-run
hitch cleanup

Core Commands

• hitch init - Initialize Hitch in a repository
• hitch status - Show current environment state
• hitch promote <branch> to <env> - Add a feature to an environment
• hitch demote <branch> from <env> - Remove a feature from an environment
• hitch release <branch> - Merge a feature to main
• hitch rebuild <env> - Reconstruct an environment from scratch
• hitch cleanup - Delete stale branches
• hitch lock <env> / hitch unlock <env> - Manual lock management
• hitch hook pre-push - Git hook integration (optional)

How It Works

Hitch maintains a special hitch-metadata orphan branch containing:

{
  "environments": {
    "dev": {
      "base": "main",
      "features": ["feature/xus", "feature/lmp", "bug/473"],
      "locked": false
    },
    "qa": {
      "base": "main",
      "features": ["feature/xyz", "feature/lmp", "bug/473"],
      "locked": false
    }
  },
  "branches": {
    "feature/xyz": {
      "created_at": "2025-10-01T09:00:00Z",
      "promoted_to": ["dev", "qa"],
      "merged_to_main_at": null
    }
  },
  "config": {
    "retention_days_after_merge": 7,
    "stale_days_no_activity": 30
  }
}

When you run hitch promote feature/xyz to qa, Hitch:

1. Locks the qa environment
2. Checks out a fresh main branch
3. Merges all features in order: main + feature/xyz + feature/lmp + bug/473
4. Force-pushes the rebuilt qa branch
5. Updates metadata
6. Unlocks the environment

Documentation

• COMMANDS.md - Complete command reference
• HOOKS.md - Git hook integration guide
• ARCHITECTURE.md - Technical architecture details
• WORKFLOWS.md - Common workflow patterns
• TERMINOLOGY.md - Glossary of Hitch terminology
• SAFETY.md - Safety mechanisms and best practices
• RELEASING.md - Release process for maintainers

Why "Hitch"?

A hitch is a type of knot used to temporarily attach a rope to an object. Like the tool, it's about temporary connections (features to environments) that are easy to tie and untie, rather than permanent tangles.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md first.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE

Author

Martin Page (@DoomedRamen) - m@rtin.page