Useful requests

Once the GitButler skill is installed and your baseline version-control instructions are in place, ask for the branch, commit, or pull request outcome you want. You do not need to know the but commands or CLI IDs; the agent uses those to build the structure you describe.

Use these examples as starting points and mix them with normal coding requests. They are intentionally short; add whatever constraints matter in your repo. Some are one-off requests; others can become standing instructions when they fit your workflow. For examples, see Tuning agent behavior.

Commit changes

With the baseline instructions from Getting started, the agent commits on the dedicated GitButler branch for its session. It commits that session's changes there, not unrelated user or agent work.

You can tell your agent Commit your changes. and let it handle the branch and commit details.

If you want local checkpoints, ask the agent to commit automatically as it works and clean them up later. For a standing instruction, see Commit checkpoints after each completed turn.

Relevant command: but commit.

Clean up history

GitButler gives the agent direct tools for moving commits, squashing commits, rewording commits, and moving changes between commits. Describe the end result you want instead of writing out an interactive rebase plan.

Keep history cleanup to unpublished local work unless you explicitly authorize rewriting pushed or shared branches.

Clean up the history. Squash WIP commits, split unrelated work, and reword
messages based on intent. Show me the plan before changing history or pushing.

Relevant commands: but move, but squash, but reword, and but rub.

Split a large commit into smaller commits

Use this when a commit is too large to review as one unit. Say how you want the work grouped; the agent can create the intermediate commits and move the right changes into them.

This prompt is an example; replace the grouping rules with whatever matters for your project.

Split this into smaller commits by concern. Keep tests with the behavior they
verify.

For a standing instruction about hunk-level separation, see Split unrelated hunks.

Put uncommitted fixes into existing commits

Use this after review feedback, test fixes, or a small follow-up edit that belongs with an earlier local commit.

Amend your follow-up fixes into the appropriate local commits.

This can also be a standing behavior; see Amend local fixes into the right commits.

Relevant commands: but absorb and but amend.

Take changes out of a commit

Use this when something was committed by mistake, or when one commit contains a change that belongs somewhere else.

Take the debug logging out of the commit and leave it uncommitted.

Move the docs changes out of the feature commit and into a separate docs commit.

Relevant commands: but uncommit and but rub.

Create stacked pull requests

Stacked pull requests help when one change depends on another, but reviewers can still review the lower branch first. Creating draft PRs still pushes branches, so use this only when the agent is allowed to publish.

Make the API work the base branch and stack the UI work on top. Create draft
PRs.

The agent can also stack or restack existing branches when the dependency structure changes. If branches have already been pushed or reviewed, ask the agent to show which PRs will change before restacking. If something in a stack turns out to be independent, ask the agent to move it out into a separate branch.

For a standing instruction, see Create stacked pull requests. For more background, see Stacked branches, but move, and but pr.

Work in parallel

Use parallel branches when the work does not depend on another branch. GitButler lets multiple branches be active in the same workspace, so different agents can work on their own branches without creating and managing separate worktrees.

This works best when the tasks do not depend on each other and are not editing the same files.

Stack branches only when one branch depends on another. For the fuller multi-agent workflow, see Parallel agents.