Reviewing and staging changes

Choose a workspace

If native startup fails, --gui reports the problem and attempts the terminal workspace. Interactive TUI input also needs terminal output; redirected input or output produces a status snapshot instead.

Review files in the terminal

1. Run izar status --tui from your repository root.
2. Move with j and k to select a changed path.
3. Read the diff below the status groups. + marks inserted lines and - marks deleted lines.
4. Press /, type a path query, and press Enter to narrow the groups. Submit an empty query to show all paths again.
5. Press r after changing files in your editor to reload their status.

Path filtering uses Spica’s fuzzy matching when Spica is available, with plain substring matching as a fallback. It filters paths, rather than diff contents. The printed terminal diff contains at most 500 lines.

Stage or unstage a file

Press Space on a changed path to stage its current working-tree content. For a deleted tracked file, this stages the deletion. If the file is fully staged with no additional working-tree edits, Space unstages it instead.

A partially staged file can appear in both Staged and Unstaged. Space stages its remaining edits regardless of which entry you reached. Use the explicit unstage command if you want to remove its staged changes while keeping the file content:

izar stage lib/example.rb
izar unstage lib/example.rb

Press a to stage all changes in the repository, including untracked files and deletions. This acts on the whole repository even when a path filter is active.

Stage one hunk at a time

Press s on the selected path to stage its first available unstaged hunk. A hunk is a block of nearby changed lines and their surrounding context. Press s again to process the next remaining hunk after the workspace reloads.

For a fully staged file without further edits, s unstages its first staged hunk. For a partially staged file, it stages the next unstaged hunk. There is no separate hunk cursor or control for choosing an arbitrary hunk in the workspace. Use the Ruby API to select a specific hunk.

Both terminal and native diff views show index-to-working-tree changes. They can be empty for a fully staged file even though s can unstage its first hunk.

Commit staged changes

In the terminal workspace, press c, enter a message, and press Enter. Izar commits all staged changes, including files hidden by your current filter. An empty message or an empty index produces an error.

For the same operation from a command prompt:

izar commit -m "Add installation instructions"

Commit identity comes from your Git configuration or Git author and committer environment variables. See getting started if an identity is missing.

Discard a file

In the terminal workspace, select the path, press uppercase X, and respond to discard PATH? [y/N]. Only y or Y confirms the action; another response cancels it. From the command line, explicit confirmation is also required:

izar discard README.md --yes

Discard restores a tracked file to its last committed content and resets its index entry. It removes an untracked or newly added file that has no version in HEAD. This discards both staged and unstaged changes for that path. The temporary stash mentioned in the result is restored before discard; it is not a retained backup of the discarded file.

Keyboard shortcuts

You can change the stage and commit bindings in configuration. Keep the default c when you need the terminal’s commit-message prompt.

Use the native window

Click a path in the sidebar to select it, or move with j and k. Space, a, s, r, ?, and q share the terminal workspace’s actions. The native view highlights syntax and renders up to 50,000 diff lines.

The native window has no commit-message or discard-confirmation dialog, and ignores the default c and X keys. Use the TUI or CLI for those operations. It also has no filter-text entry; set an initial filter with izar status --gui --filter README. Pressing / in the window clears the filter.

Choose appearance and diff settings in configuration.