git-hunk

Non-interactive, programmatic alternative to git add -p.

Every hunk gets a stable, content-based ID so you can inspect, filter, and stage changes without interactive prompts.

Why?

git add -p requires interactive input. That makes it unusable for:

• AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) that need to split changes into logical commits
• Scripts & CI/CD that automate commit organization
• Editor integrations that want hunk-level staging without shelling out to a TUI

git-hunk solves this by assigning each hunk a stable ID and exposing simple stage/unstage/discard commands.

Install

pip install git-hunk

Or with uv:

uv tool install git-hunk

Verify it works:

git-hunk --version

Agent skill (optional)

If you use Claude Code, Codex, or similar AI agents:

npx skills add wkentaro/git-hunk

Or copy SKILL.md to ~/.claude/skills/git-hunk/SKILL.md (or ~/.agents/...).

This installs a /git-hunk slash command that teaches the agent how to split changes into logical commits.

Quick start

# See all hunks across staged, unstaged, and untracked files
git-hunk list

# Show the diff for a specific hunk
git-hunk show d161935

# Stage specific hunks, then commit
git-hunk stage d161935 a3f82c1
git commit -m "feat: add validation for user input"

# Stage the remaining hunks
git-hunk stage e7b4012
git commit -m "fix: handle empty response in API client"

Usage

List hunks

git-hunk list                          # all hunks (unstaged + staged + untracked)
git-hunk list --unstaged               # unstaged hunks only
git-hunk list --staged                 # staged hunks only
git-hunk list src/foo.py src/bar.py    # specific files
git-hunk list --json                   # JSON output for scripting

Show hunks

git-hunk show                          # show all hunks (staged + unstaged)
git-hunk show d161935                  # show a single hunk
git-hunk show d161935 a3f82c1          # show multiple hunks
git-hunk show --staged                 # show all staged hunks
git-hunk show --unstaged               # show all unstaged hunks

Stage, unstage, discard

git-hunk stage d161935                 # stage a hunk
git-hunk stage d161935 a3f82c1         # stage multiple hunks
git-hunk stage d161935 -l 3,5-7        # stage specific lines only
git-hunk unstage d161935               # move back to working tree
git-hunk unstage d161935 -l 3,5-7      # unstage specific lines only
git-hunk discard d161935               # restore from HEAD
git-hunk discard d161935 -l ^3,^5-7    # discard excluding specific lines

JSON output

git-hunk list --json

[
  {
    "id": "d161935",
    "file": "src/main.py",
    "status": "unstaged",
    "header": "@@ -10,3 +10,5 @@",
    "additions": 2,
    "deletions": 0,
    "diff": "..."
  }
]

Comparison

	Interactive	Programmatic	Hunk IDs	Line-level control	JSON output
git add -p	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
git add <file>	No	Yes	No	No	No
git-hunk	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

How it works

1. Parses git diff output into individual hunks
2. Assigns each hunk a stable, content-based ID (SHA-256 prefix)
3. For staging: reconstructs a minimal patch and pipes it through git apply --cached
4. For discarding: reconstructs a reverse patch and applies it to the working tree

IDs are stable across partial staging -- they are derived from the changed lines, not the @@ line numbers that shift as you stage hunks.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

git clone https://github.com/wkentaro/git-hunk.git
cd git-hunk
make setup   # install dependencies
make test    # run tests
make lint    # run linters

License

MIT (LICENSE)