Skip to main content
gx graph displays a tree visualization of all branches and their parent-child relationships, with status indicators for the current branch, merged branches, and orphaned branches.

​
Usage

gx graph

​
Example Output

Branch Stack:

|-- main
|   |-- feature/auth  (+3/-0)
|   |   `-- feature/tests  * HEAD  (+2/-0)
|   `-- fix/login  + merged
`-- develop
    `-- feature/dashboard  (+5/-2)

Orphaned Branches:
`-- old-experiment  ! orphaned

Legend: * current branch  + merged  (+ahead/-behind)  ! orphaned
Relationships stored in .git/gx/stack.json

​
Indicators

IndicatorMeaning
* HEADThe currently checked-out branch
+ mergedBranch is fully merged into its parent
(+N/-M)N commits ahead, M commits behind the parent
! orphanedBranch whose parent no longer exists

​
Tree Structure

  • Roots are branches that are not children of any other branch (typically main/master, plus any branches not in the stack config that have children)
  • Children are indented under their parent with tree-drawing characters (\|-- and `--)
  • The main branch is always listed first among roots
  • Children within each parent are sorted alphabetically

​
Self-Healing

gx graph automatically repairs the stack config when it runs:
  1. Stale entries: Branches that no longer exist locally are removed from the config
  2. Missing parents: Branches not in the config are analyzed to detect their most likely parent using merge-base distance. If a parent is found, the relationship is saved automatically
This means gx graph works even if you create branches with plain git checkout -b instead of gx stack — it will detect and record the relationships.

​
Orphaned Branches

Branches whose recorded parent no longer exists are shown in a separate “Orphaned Branches” section with a warning indicator. These can be cleaned up with gx nuke --orphans.
Run gx graph after creating branches or resolving merges to verify the stack looks correct. The self-healing will fix most inconsistencies automatically.
  • The tree is built from .git/gx/stack.json combined with all local branches
  • Ahead/behind counts are computed for each branch relative to its configured parent
  • Merged status is checked with git branch --merged <parent>
  • Branches with no children and no config entry (that are not the main branch) are classified as orphaned
  • The config is saved after self-healing, so future runs are faster