git-hunk

Non-interactive hunk staging for Git. Designed for LLM agents and scripts that can't use git add -p.

Commands

git add-hunk <file> <hunk-id>...        # stage specific hunks
git reset-hunk <file> <hunk-id>...      # unstage specific hunks
git checkout-hunk <file> <hunk-id>...   # discard specific hunks

Hunk IDs

A hunk ID is +offset,count — the NEW file side of the @@ header. Always starts with +, never -.

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@        →  hunk ID is +1,6
     ^^^^                    (ignore the OLD side)
          ^^^^^              (use the NEW side)

@@ -10,5 +12,7 @@       →  hunk ID is +12,7 (NOT -10,5)

Workflow

git diff src/main.c                       # see hunks and @@ headers
git add-hunk src/main.c +1,6             # stage one hunk
git add-hunk src/main.c +1,6 +15,6       # stage multiple hunks
git diff --cached src/main.c              # see staged hunks
git reset-hunk src/main.c +1,6           # unstage a hunk
git checkout-hunk src/main.c +15,6        # discard a hunk

IDs are stable as long as the working tree doesn't change.

Editing hunks

To stage a hand-edited patch, use git apply --cached with a heredoc:

git apply --cached <<'EOF'
diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index abc1234..def5678 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@ void init() {
     setup();
+    validate();
     run();
     cleanup();
EOF

Install

sudo make install

Git auto-discovers git-<name> executables on PATH, so they become git add-hunk, git reset-hunk, and git checkout-hunk.

Licence

NICE Licence (NICE Is Copycentral Enforced) — MIT-style permissive, with one extra condition: this code may never be placed under copyleft terms. Use it anywhere, commercially or otherwise, except in works whose licence would require this code's source to be made available.