Land Without a Pull Request

This page puts a change on trunk without opening a pull request. A merge deploys nothing on the trunk-curated workflow, so a pull request’s job is to keep broken commits off trunk, and the pre-merge phases do that job wherever they run. The flags are in the chant ci serve reference, and Trunk and Releases explains why a merge deploys nothing.

Before you start

The workspace declaration names the pre-merge phases in ci.green.preMerge. They should be the quick checks, since the full suites run on trunk after the change lands (Tag Green Commits).

{
  "ci": {
    "green": {
      "branch": "main",
      "phases": { "check": ["check"], "suites": { "runs": ["suites"], "build": "newest" } },
      "require": ["check", "suites"],
      "preMerge": ["check"],
      "source": "runs"
    }
  }
}

Pick where the phases run

Any one of these keeps a red commit off trunk:

Where	What checks the phases
A pull request	The forge’s required checks, named after the preMerge phases’ runs.
A merge queue	The same required checks, run by the queue on the queued commit before it merges.
A land branch	ci serve --land, which runs the phases on the branch’s head and moves trunk only when they pass.
Your machine	You, with chant run or chant ci run --local before you push. Nothing on the server checks it.

The rest of this page sets up a land branch.

Serve land branches

Run ci serve with --land and a build command that runs the pre-merge phases’ Ops. The command runs in a fresh worktree of each land branch’s head, and CHANT_BUILD_PHASES names the phases to run.

chant ci serve --forge github --repo acme/app --env prod --land \
  --build-command 'npm ci && npx chant run check'

On a git server with no forge API, use --forge git and leave out --repo. ci serve then reads refs through git ls-remote and sets no commit status.

chant ci serve --forge git --env prod --land \
  --build-command 'npm ci && npx chant run check'

No runner key is needed. Runs are judged unsigned unless the declaration sets ci.green.signedSince.

Land a change

Commit the change on top of trunk’s head. A Chant-Record trailer ties it to a work item, so its merge record and the release candidates name the work item.

git fetch origin main
git rebase origin/main
git commit --amend --trailer 'Chant-Record: work:w-42'
git push origin HEAD:chant/land/w-42

On its next poll ci serve runs the phases on the branch’s head. When they pass, it fast-forwards main to that head and deletes chant/land/w-42. The poll after that runs the record job, which writes _merges/<sha>.json with the work item as its source.

When a land is refused

ci serve leaves the land branch and trunk as they were, and prints why on stderr:

• The head does not descend from trunk’s head. Rebase onto origin/main and push the branch again.
• A phase failed, or the build recorded no finished run for it. Fix the change and push again.
• The push to trunk was refused because trunk moved while the phases ran. Rebase and push again.

A new push to the same land branch is tried on the next poll. The same head is never tried twice.

Run the phases on your machine

Without a server, run each pre-merge phase’s Op before you push to trunk:

npx chant run check --no-record
git push origin HEAD:main

--no-record keeps the run off chant/lifecycle. Without it, chant run records the run and pushes the ledger, and ci tick counts that record toward the commit’s green tag unless ci.green.signedSince asks for a runner’s signature. chant ci run plan --local runs the pull-request plan job on your machine, and ci tick never counts its record, which says runOrigin.forge local.