The Multi-Repo Challenge

We’ve all been there: working a feature that spans multiple Git repositories, doing your best to coordinate pull requests and save the reviewers from “review-hell” as they try to piece together how everything fits across the repositories… 

When a change impacts more than one microservice, the coordination can become a mess of disconnected PRs spanning many repos, each dependent on the other to avoid breaking something critical. 

The Domino Effect of Dependency Updates

Worse still, when your code relies on a common library, a simple update to that library means you’re not just updating code – you’re off on a quest to bring every dependent repo up to speed. Pull the latest, make the change, create a PR, push, get approvals, merge it all – it’s like a game of dominos where a single missing piece may cause chaos.

The Microservice Quagmire

Every step of this process multiplies with the number of services and repositories, which can drag teams into a cycle of endless PRs, approvals, and potential merge conflicts. No one wants to lose an entire afternoon chasing down one small update across 15 different repositories, but for anyone living in a multi-repo world, it’s an all-too-familiar scenario. And if one team is responsible for a microservice that’s widely shared, this can lead to bottlenecks as they scramble to get everyone else’s dependencies updated, reviewed, and tested. In theory, microservices should empower independent deployment, but in practice, they can sometimes become quicksand, where every small change sinks your productivity.

A New Approach with GitKraken

The kicker? If you’re trying to roll out an improvement to a core feature or fix a bug across services, even the smallest dependency shift can create a ripple effect. It often feels like the traditional Git flow is working against you.

So microservices and Git can be hard, but what if they weren’t? 

What if, instead of feeling trapped in a multi-repo nightmare, you could handle these PRs as a single unit of work?

What if you could group the changes, request reviews, and merge them across repos in one coordinated, controlled push?

A Sneak Peak At Our New CLI

We’re tackling these problems head-on at GitKraken because we live in this world too and we’ve had enough. With our new CLI tool you’ll be able to do this and more. Here’s a sneak peak:

Create pull requests across multiple repositories and push in one command:

Check the status of your grouped PRs:

Merge all PRs at once:

Get In On the Action

Join us. This is the way. You can sign up here for early access and release updates: gitkraken.com/cli-early-access

Also be sure to check out our session on the new CLI at GitKon 2024: gitkon.com