force-push-downstream

Force Push Downstream

Force-push a branch and all its downstream branches to their respective remotes. Skips branches whose local and remote tips already match.

Arguments

• starting-branch (optional) -- The branch to start from. Defaults to the current branch if not specified.

Examples:

• /force-push-downstream -- push current branch + all downstream
• /force-push-downstream feature-auth -- push from that branch down

Current State

• Branch: !git branch --show-current
• Status: !git status --short

Steps

1. Determine starting branch

If an argument was provided, use it as the starting branch. Otherwise use the current branch.

git branch --show-current

2. Detect downstream chain

Detect all downstream branches by examining local branch tracking relationships, using the same method as rebase-downstream:

# List all local branches with their upstream tracking branches
git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short) %(upstream:short)' refs/heads/

From this output, build a parent-child tree:

• A branch B is a child of branch A if B's upstream tracking ref is A (or origin/A).
• Starting from the starting branch, walk the tree depth-first to find all descendants.

If a branch tracks origin/<same-name> (i.e., it tracks itself on the remote), it is NOT a child -- it is an independent branch.

3. Build push list

The push list is: the starting branch itself, followed by every downstream branch in tree order (from the chain detection output).

4. Show plan and confirm

Display the branches that will be pushed:

Force push plan:
  feature-auth
    -> feature-auth-ui
      -> feature-auth-tests
    -> feature-auth-api

For each branch, check if it is already up-to-date with origin:

# Get local and remote SHAs
local_sha=$(git rev-parse <branch>)
remote_sha=$(git rev-parse origin/<branch> 2>/dev/null || echo "none")

If local_sha == remote_sha, mark as (up-to-date, will skip). If the remote branch doesn't exist, mark as (new, will push). Otherwise mark as (diverged, will force-push).

Ask the user to confirm before pushing.

5. Push each branch

For each branch in the push list:

1. Skip if up-to-date: If local SHA matches origin SHA, print skip message and move on.

2. Force push:

   git push --force-with-lease origin <branch>
   

   Use --force-with-lease for safety -- it fails if someone else pushed to the remote since our last fetch, preventing accidental overwrites of others' work.

3. If the remote branch doesn't exist (first push), use:

   git push -u origin <branch>
   

4. Report result: Print success/failure for each branch.

6. Report summary

After all pushes complete, show a summary:

Force push results:
  [ok] feature-auth (pushed)
  [--] feature-auth-ui (skipped, up-to-date)
  [ok] feature-auth-tests (pushed)
  [ok] feature-auth-api (pushed, new)
  [!!] feature-auth-docs (failed: ...)

Important

• Always use --force-with-lease instead of --force for safety
• Do NOT push without user confirmation
• Skip branches that are already up-to-date (local == remote SHA)
• If any push fails, report it but continue with remaining branches
• Return to the original branch at the end