CLI reference

Usage:
  neogit [options] init
  neogit [options] commit <name> [branch <branch>] [--unique] [--before=<commit>]
  neogit [options] branch <name> <commit>
  neogit [options] diff <ref1> <ref2>

Global options

Option	Description
-h, --help	Show help and exit
--version	Print the installed neogit version and exit
-r ROOT, --root=ROOT	Repository root directory (defaults to CWD)
-g, --gui	Enable the rich console progress GUI
-d, --debug	Enable debug logging

Commands

neogit init

Creates uniqueness constraints in Neo4j and the storage bucket/container. Idempotent — safe to run again.

neogit commit <name>

Snapshot the directory tree at --root into a new commit named <name>.

Flag	Effect
branch <branch>	Commit to the named branch, creating it if it does not exist. The CLI forwards this to Neogit.commit(..., branch_name=<branch>). Omit it and commits land on the default branch (master, configurable via NEOGIT_BRANCH).
--unique	If a commit with the same name already exists on this branch, return its hash instead of creating a duplicate
--before=<commit>	Insert this commit before the named commit (rewrites history)

neogit branch <name> <commit>

Create a new branch named <name> pointing at <commit>, where <commit> is the SHA-1 hash returned by neogit commit. This mirrors Git, where branches are created from a commit ID rather than a commit message.

neogit diff <ref1> <ref2>

Resolves each ref (a commit SHA-1 hash) to its tree and walks both Merkle trees.

Output is git --name-status style — one line per changed file: a status letter, two spaces, then the path. A = added, M = modified, D = deleted, T = type change. The letter is colored when stdout is a terminal (green / yellow / red / cyan); when the output is piped or redirected, color is stripped and you get plain, greppable lines like M /fs/jffs2/acl.c. Directory entries are not shown — only the files inside them.

See How-to / Diff two commits for examples.

Exit behavior

On any unhandled exception the CLI drops into an ipdb post-mortem session (see neogit/entrypoint/cmdline.py::post_mortem). Combine with --debug to see the full stack trace.