Land the bottom of a stack

The bottom-most PR has approvals and green CI. You want to land it AND keep working on the rest of the stack without manual cleanup.

Starting state

stac-man

main
└─ feat/auth-models  #41 open  CI ready
   └─ feat/auth-handlers  #42 open  CI ready
      └─ feat/auth-docs  ← current  #43 draft  CI

You're sitting on feat/auth-docs. PR #41 is approved and green; the CI chip is green and the ready chip says GitHub considers it mergeable.

Step 1 — confirm the bottom is ready

sm log

The CI badge on the bottom-most row tells you everything you need to know: green CI plus green ready means sm land will proceed without --force. If you see a red CI, an orange conflict, or a draft pill on the bottom-most PR, decide whether you really want to land it before continuing — sm land refuses red CI unless you pass --force, and a conflict chip means the PR will be rejected by GitHub regardless of stac-man's gates.

Step 2 — land

sm land

What happens, in order:

1. sm walks toward trunk and finds the bottom-most tracked PR (#41).
2. gh pr checks confirms CI is green.
3. gh pr merge --squash merges the PR on GitHub.
4. sm sync runs:
   • Fetches origin.
   • Fast-forwards main.
   • Detects feat/auth-models as merged and deletes it locally.
   • Re-parents feat/auth-handlers onto main.
   • Restacks feat/auth-handlers and feat/auth-docs onto the new main.
   • Calls gh pr edit on #42 to retarget its base from feat/auth-models to main.

Ending state

stac-man

main
└─ feat/auth-handlers  #42 open  CI ready
   └─ feat/auth-docs  ← current  #43 draft  CI

feat/auth-models is gone locally. PR #41 is merged. PR #42's base now points at main so reviewers see only the handler diff. The sm submit that runs as part of sm land's sync also refreshes the stack table on every remaining PR's body so the chain reads one shorter.

Variations

Pick a strategy

Default is --squash. To use a merge commit instead:

sm land --merge

To use a rebase merge:

sm land --rebase

The strategy flags are mutually exclusive.

Skip the CI gate

sm land --force

For when CI is broken on main, not on the PR — or any other case where you've decided red CI is acceptable.

From a branch other than the top

You don't need to be on the top branch. As long as you're somewhere in the stack:

sm checkout feat/auth-handlers
sm land           # still finds #41 as the bottom

What if restack pauses

If retargeting causes a conflict (rare on a healthy stack):

⚠ rebase paused on feat/auth-handlers

Resolve, git add, then sm continue. The PR has already merged on GitHub at this point — only the local cleanup is paused.

See also

• sm land — flag reference.
• sm sync — what's running under the hood.
• Recipes → Recover from a bad rebase — escape hatches if anything goes sideways.