Git Reforge

Reforge Git repository history (authors, committers, messages, co-authors, signatures) and migrate seamlessly across Git forges (GitHub, Codeberg, Forgejo, GitLab).

Features

• Fast History Rewriting - Uses git-filter-repo for near-instant history rewrites.
• Author Rewriting - Change author and committer names and emails across all commits.
• Multiple Author Support - Replace commits originating from multiple historical authors.
• Interactive Mode - Review and customize changes per commit:
  • Edit author name and email individually
  • Customize commit messages
  • Skip specific commits
  • Apply defaults to all remaining commits
• Co-author Management - Rewrite, remove, or review Co-authored-by trailers interactively.
• Commit & Tag Signing - Comprehensive GPG and SSH signing options:
  • Keep original signatures
  • Re-sign with GPG key
  • Re-sign with SSH key
  • Strip all signatures
  • Preserves original tagger names, emails, and historical release timestamps.
• Atomic Multi-Branch Push - Pushes all branches and tags in a single atomic network operation.
• Local Inspection - Save the rewritten repository locally without pushing (--no-push).
• CI / Automation Ready - Headless execution support using the -y, --yes flag.
• Preserve History - Original commit dates, parent links, and directory trees are preserved.

Requirements

• Git 2.20+
• git-filter-repo (required)
• Go 1.24+ (required only if building from source)
• GPG (optional, for GPG signing)
• SSH (optional, for SSH signing)
• Access to source and destination Git repositories

Installation

git clone https://github.com/nathawatc/git-reforge.git
cd git-reforge
go build .

Usage

./git-reforge [OPTIONS] <source> [dest]

Arguments

Argument	Description
<source>	Source repository URL
[dest]	Destination repository URL or local path (not required when --no-push or --save-dir is given)

Required Options

Option	Description
-t, --to <author>	New author identity ("Name <email>" or "email")
-f, --from <name>	Old author name(s) to replace (repeatable or comma-separated)

Optional Options

Option	Description
-i, --interactive	Enable interactive mode for per-commit editing
--gpg <keyid>	Re-sign commits and tags with GPG key ID
--ssh <path>	Re-sign commits and tags with SSH private key path
--no-sign	Strip all commit and tag signatures
--strip-title <p>	Regex to strip from commit title (repeatable)
--strip-body <p>	Regex to strip from commit body (repeatable)
--save-dir <path>	Save rewritten repo to <path> (directory must not exist)
--no-push	Rewrite history locally but skip pushing to destination
-y, --yes	Skip confirmation prompt for non-interactive / CI runs
-h, --help	Show help message

Co-Authored-by Options

Option	Description
-c, --coauthor <mode>	Trailer mode: rewrite|remove|interactive
--coauthor-from <n>	Co-author name(s) to match (repeatable; default: --from)
--coauthor-to <author>	Replacement identity ("Name <email>"; default: --to)

Examples

Click to expand examples

Basic migration:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org

Non-interactive / CI run:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t "NewName <myuser@noreply.codeberg.org>" \
  -y

Interactive mode with custom author:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t "NewName <newuser@noreply.codeberg.org>" \
  -i

With GPG re-signing:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  --gpg ABCD1234

With SSH re-signing:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  --ssh ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Multiple old author names:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName1" -f "OldName2" \
  -t "NewName <newuser@noreply.codeberg.org>"

Rewrite locally and save without pushing:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  /path/to/output \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t "NewName <newuser@noreply.codeberg.org>"

Save a local copy and push:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t "NewName <newuser@noreply.codeberg.org>" \
  --save-dir /path/to/output

Remove all matching Co-authored-by trailers:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  -c remove

Rewrite Co-authored-by trailers:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  -c rewrite

Rewrite custom Co-authored-by trailers:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  --coauthor-from "Charlie <charlie@old.com>" \
  --coauthor-to "Charlie <charlie@codeberg.org>"

Interactive Co-authored-by review:

./git-reforge https://github.com/user/repo.git \
  https://codeberg.org/user/repo.git \
  -f "OldName" \
  -t myuser@noreply.codeberg.org \
  -c interactive

Interactive Mode

When using the -i flag, you can review each commit individually:

Key	Action
E	Edit author name and email
M	Edit commit message
A	Apply default changes
S	Skip (keep original)
D	Apply defaults to all remaining
Q	Quit and apply changes made so far

Co-Authored-by Interactive Mode

With --coauthor interactive, you can review each affected commit:

Key	Action
R	Rewrite the trailer with the new values
D	Delete (remove) the trailer
S	Skip (keep original trailer)
RA	Rewrite all remaining commits
DA	Delete trailers in all remaining commits
Q	Quit and apply decisions made so far

Note

• The tool uses a temporary clone — your original repository is never modified.
• Rewriting commit history changes commit SHAs, which invalidates original cryptographic signatures.
• --no-push allows you to inspect the rewritten repository locally before pushing.
• Combine --save-dir and <dest> to save a local backup copy and push to destination in one run.
• Co-authored-by matching defaults to --from; supply --coauthor-from to match custom identities.
• --save-dir without <dest> automatically implies --no-push.