---
title: Cherry-pick Command
description: Learn more about the `cherry-pick` command in Melos.
---

# Cherry-pick Command

Cherry-pick commits onto the current branch without the release changes they
contain.

```bash
melos cherry-pick 4ba1b8f
```

This command is meant for branches other than the default branch that packages
are released from, for example a hot-fix branch for an older version. The
changelogs and the versions on such a branch differ from the ones on the default
branch, so they must not be carried over together with a fix. `melos
cherry-pick` runs `git cherry-pick` for you and leaves out the following
changes from each picked commit:

- Changes to the `CHANGELOG.md` files of the packages, to the workspace
  changelog, and to the other
  [aggregate changelogs](/configuration/overview#changelogs) of the workspace.
  Conflicts in these files are resolved automatically by keeping the changelog
  of the current branch.
- Changes to the `version` of the packages in their `pubspec.yaml` files.
- Changes to the dependencies between the packages of the workspace, which are
  the version constraints and tag references that `melos version` updates in the
  dependents of a released package. A dependency on a workspace package that a
  commit adds is still picked, only changes to existing ones are left out.

All other changes to a `pubspec.yaml` file are kept. Conflicts that only
concern the fields above are resolved automatically by keeping the values of the
current branch.

All other changes are picked as usual. Afterwards, [`melos
version`](/commands/version) can be run on the branch. It finds the picked
commits since the latest release of the branch, and writes the changelog entries
and the new versions that are correct for this branch.

<Info>
  To learn more about the whole workflow, visit the [Releasing from Hot-fix
  Branches](/guides/hot-fix-releases) guide.
</Info>

Several commits can be picked at once. They are picked in the order that they
are given in, and a commit that is given more than once is only picked once:

```bash
melos cherry-pick 4ba1b8f 9c2d1e0
```

A range of commits can be given using the git shorthand syntax
`<start-commit>..<end-commit>`. The commits of a range are picked from the
oldest to the newest:

```bash
melos cherry-pick 4ba1b8f..9c2d1e0
```

<Warning>
  The start commit of a range is not included in the range. Use
  `4ba1b8f~1..9c2d1e0` to also pick `4ba1b8f`.
</Warning>

A commit that contains nothing but release changes, such as the commit that
`melos version` creates, is skipped. This makes it safe to pick a range of
commits that contains releases of the default branch. A commit whose changes are
already on the current branch is skipped as well.

The repository must not have uncommitted changes to tracked files when running
this command.

## Conflicts

When a commit conflicts with the current branch in something other than the
release changes, the command stops and lists the conflicted
files. The changelogs are already restored at this point. Resolve the conflicts
as you would with `git cherry-pick`:

```bash
# Resolve the conflicts in the listed files, then stage them.
git add .
git cherry-pick --continue
```

If a `pubspec.yaml` file is listed, other parts of it than the release changes
conflict as well. Keep the `version` and the constraints on other workspace
packages of the current branch when resolving it. To cancel the pick instead,
run `git cherry-pick --abort`.

If more commits were given than the one that conflicted, the command prints the
ones that have not been picked yet. Run `melos cherry-pick` again with those
commits once the conflicts are resolved.

## --[no-]record-origin

Whether to append the line `(cherry picked from commit <commit>)` to the message
of each picked commit, which records the commit that it originates from. This
is the same as the `-x` option of `git cherry-pick`. Defaults to `true`.

```bash
melos cherry-pick 4ba1b8f --no-record-origin
```

## --mainline (-m)

The number of the parent, starting from 1, that a merge commit is compared
against. This is required when picking merge commits and is the same as the
`--mainline` option of `git cherry-pick`. For a merge commit that merged a pull
request into the default branch, the first parent is usually the right one.

```bash
melos cherry-pick 4ba1b8f --mainline 1
```