sm log

Print the stack tree rooted at trunk, with current-branch / needs-restack markers, PR pills, and per-row CI / mergeability badges.

Alias: sm ls.

Synopsis

sm log [--no-pr] [--no-checks] [--no-merge-status] [--json | --porcelain]

Flags

Flag	Description
--no-pr	Skip the PR status lookup entirely (no gh calls). Disables both badges as well, since they share the same round-trip.
--no-checks	Skip the CI rollup badge per row. PR pills still render.
--no-merge-status	Skip the GitHub mergeability badge per row. PR pills and CI badges still render.
--json	Emit the stack as a single JSON document on stdout instead of the rendered tree. The per-branch shape matches sm show --json so a single parser handles both commands. Mutually exclusive with --porcelain.
--porcelain	Emit one tab-separated row per tracked branch with no header. Stable column order; empty fields written as -. Mutually exclusive with --json.

Example output

stac-man

main
└─ feat/db-schema  #41 open CI ready
   └─ feat/api-endpoints  #42 open CI ready
      └─ feat/web-form  ← current  #43 open CI conflict
         └─ feat/web-tests  #44 draft CI

What each column means:

• Branch name. Trunk is at the top with no connector. Children sit under their parents. The branch HEAD is on now is tagged ← current. A branch whose recorded parent SHA no longer matches the parent's tip gets (needs restack).
• PR pill. #N <state>: open, draft, merged, or closed. Branches with no recorded PR show no pill.
• CI badge. A coloured CI chip from the PR's check rollup: green when every check passed, yellow when at least one is still in flight, red when at least one failed. Hidden entirely when the PR has no checks configured.
• Mergeability badge. A green ready chip when GitHub reports the PR as MERGEABLE; an orange conflict chip when CONFLICTING. Hidden on drafts and on PRs whose state GitHub is still computing — a missing badge does not mean "fine".

What it does

1. Loads the in-memory stack Graph from .git/config.
2. For every tracked branch with a recorded PR number, calls gh pr list --head <branch> to fetch PR state for the pill.
3. For every PR whose state is open (including drafts), issues one gh pr view --json mergeable,state,isDraft,statusCheckRollup to populate the CI and mergeability badges.
4. Renders the tree, top-down, with one branch per row.

Caching

The combined CI + mergeability response is cached for 60 seconds at .git/stac-man/checks-cache.json. Repeated sm log calls within that window render instantly. The cache is invalidated automatically after sm submit and sm sync, both of which can change CI state and mergeability — the very next sm log will re-fetch.

When to use the opt-outs

• --no-pr — you're offline, gh isn't installed or authenticated, or you want the tree to render with zero network round-trips.
• --no-checks — your stack has noisy CI matrices and you only care about the merge status.
• --no-merge-status — GitHub's mergeability check is currently flaky for your repo and the badges are misleading.

Scripting (--json and --porcelain)

Both formats consume exactly the same underlying graph as the rendered tree, including the --no-pr / --no-checks / --no-merge-status opt-outs — the same options that suppress a badge in the tree leave the equivalent JSON / porcelain field empty (or unset).

JSON

sm log --json

Top-level shape:

{
  "trunk": "main",
  "current": "feat-web-form",
  "branches": [
    {
      "branch": "feat-db-schema",
      "parent": "main",
      "parentSHA": "abc123…",
      "depth": 1,
      "children": ["feat-api-endpoints"],
      "pr": {
        "number": 41,
        "state": "OPEN",
        "url": "https://github.com/org/repo/pull/41",
        "draft": false,
        "title": "Add db schema",
        "checks": "PASS",
        "mergeable": "MERGEABLE"
      }
    },
    { "branch": "feat-api-endpoints", "...": "..." }
  ]
}

Notes:

• The trunk is reported once at the top level. Branches never contains a trunk row — every entry is a tracked (non-trunk) branch.
• Order is depth-first pre-order over name-sorted roots, so a parent always appears before its descendants and the same input graph always produces the same output.
• pr is null (omitted) when there's no recorded PR. When --no-pr is set or gh is unavailable, branches with a recorded number still surface a minimal { "number": N } so consumers see the link.
• pr.checks and pr.mergeable are omitted when not computed; their values are the constants PASS / PENDING / FAIL and MERGEABLE / CONFLICTING / UNKNOWN respectively.
• Boolean fields (isCurrent, needsRestack, pr.draft) are omitted when false.

A few jq recipes:

sm log --json | jq -r '.branches[] | select(.pr.checks == "FAIL") | .branch'
sm log --json | jq '.branches | map(select(.pr.mergeable == "CONFLICTING")) | length'
sm log --json | jq -r '.branches[] | select(.needsRestack) | .branch'

Porcelain

sm log --porcelain

One tab-separated row per tracked branch. No header. Empty fields are written as -. Booleans are true / false.

Column order (stable across releases — new columns are appended, never reordered):

#	Column	Values
1	branch	branch name
2	parent	parent branch name (- if none)
3	depth	integer; 1 for branches rooted on trunk
4	pr_number	integer or -
5	pr_state	open / draft / merged / closed / -
6	ci	pass / pending / fail / -
7	mergeable	mergeable / conflicting / -
8	is_current	true / false
9	needs_restack	true / false

Example:

feat-db-schema     main             1  41  open   pass     mergeable    false  false
feat-api-endpoints feat-db-schema   2  42  open   pass     mergeable    false  false
feat-web-form      feat-api-endpoints 3 43  open   pass     conflicting  true   false
feat-web-tests     feat-web-form    4  44  draft  -        -            false  false

(In real output the columns are tab-separated; the spacing above is for readability.)

--porcelain is the format to reach for from shell pipelines. awk -F'\t' '$6 == "fail"' listed every branch with red CI; cut -f1,9 lists branches that need a restack.

See also

• sm show — detailed view of one branch, including its commits. The pr JSON shape is shared with sm log --json.
• sm doctor — when something looks off in sm log. Doctor surfaces a louder block for PRs GitHub reports as CONFLICTING.