Pile

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The AI-native stacked PR CLI for humans.

Pile is a command-line tool for managing stacked pull requests on GitHub. It helps you break down large changes into small, reviewable PRs that stack on top of each other.

        ┌───┐
        │ 3 │  ← feature-c
        └─┬─┘
        ┌─┴─┐
        │ 2 │  ← feature-b
        └─┬─┘
        ┌─┴─┐
        │ 1 │  ← feature-a
        └─┬─┘
        ──┴──  ← main

Features

• Stacked branches - Create branches that build on each other
• Automatic rebasing - Keep your stack in sync with pile sync
• GitHub integration - Create and update PRs with pile submit
• Offline support - Queue operations when offline, sync when back online
• AI-friendly - JSON output for all commands (--json)

Installation

npm install -g pile-cli

Or with other package managers:

pnpm add -g pile-cli
yarn global add pile-cli

From source

git clone https://github.com/vpalcar/pile.git
cd pile
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm -C packages/cli link --global

Quick Start

# Initialize pile in your repo
pile init

# Create your first stacked branch
pile create -m "Add user authentication"

# Make changes and create another branch on top
pile create -m "Add login form"

# View your stack
pile log

# Submit PRs for your stack
pile submit --stack

# Switch branches
pile checkout            # Interactive selector
pile checkout main       # Go to trunk
pile checkout my-branch  # Go to specific branch

Commands

Stack Management

Command	Alias	Description
pile create -m "message"	c	Create a new stacked branch with a commit
pile log	l	View the branch stack tree
pile checkout [branch]	co	Checkout a branch (interactive if no branch given)
pile delete	del	Delete current branch, close PR, switch to parent
pile modify	m	Amend or squash commits
pile rename	rn	Rename the current branch
pile move	mv	Move branch to a different parent
pile restack	rs	Rebase all branches onto their parents
pile sync		Fetch, update trunk, restack, cleanup merged

PR Operations

Command	Alias	Description
pile submit	s	Push and create/update PR
pile submit --stack	s -s	Submit all PRs in the stack
pile add	a	Stage files for commit
pile status	st	View PR status, reviews, CI checks
pile merge		Merge the PR (squash by default)
pile close		Close PR without merging
pile edit		Edit PR title, body, labels, etc.

Review Operations

Command	Description
pile review --approve	Approve the PR
pile review --request-changes -m "message"	Request changes
pile review -m "comment"	Add a comment
pile request user1 user2	Request review from users

Examples

Creating a Stack

# Start from main
git checkout main

# Create first feature branch
pile create -m "Add database schema"

# Make more changes, create next branch
pile create -m "Add API endpoints"

# And another
pile create -m "Add frontend components"

# View the stack
pile log

Output:

  main
  │
  ○ 03-22-add-database-schema
  │
  ○ 03-22-add-api-endpoints
  │
  ● 03-22-add-frontend-components  ← you are here

Submitting PRs

# Submit just the current branch
pile submit

# Submit the entire stack
pile submit --stack

# Submit as draft
pile submit --draft

# Open PR in browser after creating
pile submit --open

Syncing Your Stack

# Fetch latest, rebase stack, cleanup merged branches
pile sync

Reviewing PRs

# Check out a branch and approve its PR
pile co feature-branch
pile review --approve -m "LGTM!"

# Request changes
pile review --request-changes -m "Please add tests"

Configuration

Pile stores its configuration in .pile/config.json:

{
  "trunk": "main",
  "remote": "origin",
  "mergeMethod": "squash",
  "autoOpenPR": false
}

JSON Output

All commands support --json for machine-readable output:

pile log --json
pile status --json
pile submit --json

This makes Pile ideal for AI-assisted development workflows.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Git
• GitHub account with authentication (gh auth login or GITHUB_TOKEN)

License

MIT