afajl/mob

Console tool for remote mob programming

Mob is a console tool to work in a remote mob (or pair) with git.

• Handover code fast between drivers
• Remembers order of drivers
• Keeps track of state (working, waiting for next, stopped) to eliminate risk of conflicts and lost work
• Use any branch as base

• Installing
  • Cargo
  • Manually
• Usage
  • FAQ
    • How do I remove all traces of mob from a repo?
    • Where is the configuration stored?
    • How do I show current status?
    • Work duration is set to 15 but we must stop for a meeting in 7 minutes
• Hooks
• How it works
• Inspiration and other tools

Installing

Cargo

Install rust and run:

cargo install remotemob

Manually

Download the latest release and unpack it to somewhere in your PATH.

Usage

Note: It's safe to try mob! It prints all git commands it runs and if you decide that it's not for you can remove all traces.

• mob start creates a new feature branch or syncs the branch from the previous driver.
• mob next commits all changes to the feature branch and hands over to the next driver.
• mob done stages all changes on the feature branch for commit on the base branch (normally main).

Run mob for help on more commands.

FAQ

How do I remove all traces of mob from a repo?

1. Run mob done to remove the mob branch. Either commit the changes or run git reset HEAD --hard to discard changes.
2. Run mob clean to remove the mob-meta branch.
3. Delete ~/.mob if you don't want to use mob anymore

Where is the configuration stored?

Configuration local to you is stored in ~/.mob. Configuration for a repository is stored in an orphan branch named mob-meta.
mob start creates all configuration needed to run. It is always safe to run mob clean to remove the repository config and start fresh.

How do I show current status?

Run mob status

Work duration is set to 15 but we must stop for a meeting in 7 minutes

Run mob start 7

Hooks

You can add hooks to your configuration in ~/.mob to notify you when your turn is over or to take over screen sharing when you start.

...
[hooks]
after_start="take_screen.sh"
after_timer="say 'mob next NEXT_DRIVER'"

Hooks are executed by a sh and can contain two variables:

• CURRENT_DRIVER: Always the name you configured in ~/.mob
• NEXT_DRIVER: Next driver or anyone if you are the first in a session. It is empty on all before_* hooks.

The available hooks are:

• before_start: Run as soon as possible when you run mob start, before checking that it's your turn or that your working directory is clean.
• after_start: Right after you've started a session with mob start but before the timer started. This is a good hook for taking over the screen.
• after_timer: Run when your turn ended. The first time you run mob start it tries to find commands to play a sound and show a desktop notification to populate this hook.
• before_next: Before running mob next, NEXT_DRIVER is not available.
• after_next: Before running mob next, NEXT_DRIVER is either a name or anyone.
• before_done: Before the squashing and deleting branches.
• after_done: After done has been run, NEXT_DRIVER is not available.

How it works

mob uses an orphan branch called mob-meta to save session state and settings. You can view the session content with mob status [-r] and delete it with mob clean.

Session {
    drivers: Drivers(
        [
            "Paul",
            "Leo",
            "Ella",
        ],
    ),
    branches: Branches {
        branch: "mob-session",
        base_branch: "main",
    },
    settings: Some(
        Settings {
            commit_message: "mob sync [skip ci]",
            work_duration: 10,
        },
    ),
    state: Working {
        driver: "Ella",
    },
}

The session can be in 3 different states:

Inspiration and other tools

Inspiration for this tool comes from Remote mob programming and their tool mob written in Go.

I did this rewrite to:

• remember the order of drivers
• use any branch as base branch, not only master or main
• know about the state so we get nice warnings instead of git conflicts and lost refs.
• and of course... rust ;)

To find other tools look at the mob programming timer tag on github

mob's Issues

Shell escape driver names

Potential security issue when executing hook with a next driver name that executes code

Question to take break should be rethought

The question should either be asked first or asked on start or both.

Meta branch should have a better commit message

Right now its "update", maybe "mob meta branch [no ci]"

Add break command

Add a command to take a break manually

Allow multiple drivers on the same machine

Mob start should check if local branch has been merged before asking to delete it

Mob start should default to the current branch