Resolving Conflicts

When a loom command rewrites history and two changes touch the same lines, git can’t combine them on its own. Most commands then pause, so you can resolve the conflict and carry on. Nothing is lost either way.

1. The Pause

git loom commit -b feature-auth -m "add auth middleware" zz
# ✓ Created branch `feature-auth` at `a1b2c3d`
# ! Conflicts detected — resolve them with git, then run:
#   › loom continue   to complete the commit
#   › loom abort      to cancel and restore original state

Until you continue or abort, most loom commands are refused; show, diff, trace and tui still work.

2. Find the Conflicts

git status lists them under Unmerged paths, and git loom tui marks them !!. git diff shows the conflicts inline.

3. Resolve Each File

Git marks both versions in the file:

<<<<<<< HEAD
// existing middleware code
=======
// your new auth middleware
>>>>>>> 1a2b3c4 (add auth middleware)

Edit the file to keep what you want, and remove the <<<<<<<, ======= and >>>>>>> lines. Most editors have buttons for this, or run git mergetool.

4. Mark Them Resolved

Stage each resolved file with plain git:

git add src/middleware.rs

Use git rm for a file the resolution deletes.

5. Continue or Abort

git loom continue
# ✓ Created commit `pop` (b2c3d4e) on branch `feature-auth`

Loom finishes the command as if nothing had happened, staged changes included. If a later commit conflicts too, it pauses again: repeat steps 2 to 5.

To give up instead:

git loom abort
# ✓ Aborted `loom commit` and restored original state

Everything goes back to how it was before the command: history, branches, staged and unstaged changes.

You can also resolve with the TUI, which opens on a paused operation.

Commands That Don’t Pause

split, branch, unmerge, dropping a branch, and some fold forms don’t pause: on a conflict they roll back and leave everything as it was. See continue for the full list.

When Things Go Off Script

You finished the rebase with git: if you ran git rebase --continue to the end, git loom continue still completes the loom command.
Your resolution left a commit with no changes: git drops that commit, and the command still reports success as if it had survived; git reflog still has it. A change you were folding or absorbing is not lost this way: it still lands, or comes back to your working tree, and loom says so — as long as you resolved with git checkout HEAD -- <file> and git add rather than git reset --hard or a commit of your own.
Changes that can’t be put back: if git couldn’t replay its stash, your changes wait in git stash list. If your staged changes no longer apply, loom saves them as a patch and prints the git apply command that restores them.
Loom says an operation is paused but no rebase is in progress: run git loom continue if you finished it yourself, or git loom abort to discard it. Never delete the paused-operation state by hand: it is what abort uses to restore your changes.

Keyboard shortcuts

git-loom