From afb66f78a91743f9bb324042ea4a2550f6c03591 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Haller <stefan@haller-berlin.de>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2026 17:03:41 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Sort remote branches with the same committer date in stack
 order

Force-pushing a stack of branches puts the same commits on the remote,
so the remote branches panel shows the same alphabetical order for a
stack that the local branches panel did. Sort them by ancestry too,
which needs the tip hash and committer date of each remote branch.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 pkg/commands/git_commands/remote_loader.go    | 36 +++++++++----
 .../sort_remote_branches_in_stack_order.go    | 52 +++++++++++++++++++
 pkg/integration/tests/test_list.go            |  1 +
 3 files changed, 79 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 pkg/integration/tests/branch/sort_remote_branches_in_stack_order.go

diff --git a/pkg/commands/git_commands/remote_loader.go b/pkg/commands/git_commands/remote_loader.go
index 21d426201..2a0d9dd29 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/git_commands/remote_loader.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/git_commands/remote_loader.go
@@ -116,27 +116,32 @@ func (self *RemoteLoader) getRemoteBranchesByRemoteName() (map[string][]*models.
 
 // Returns all remote branches, sorted the way the config asks for
 func (self *RemoteLoader) getRemoteBranches() ([]*models.RemoteBranch, error) {
-	var sortOrder string
-	switch strings.ToLower(self.UserConfig().Git.RemoteBranchSortOrder) {
-	case "alphabetical":
-		sortOrder = "refname"
-	case "date":
+	sortByDate := strings.ToLower(self.UserConfig().Git.RemoteBranchSortOrder) == "date"
+	sortOrder := "refname"
+	if sortByDate {
 		sortOrder = "-committerdate"
-	default:
-		sortOrder = "refname"
+	}
+
+	// Asking for the tip of a branch makes git read its commit, so only do it
+	// when we are going to sort by ancestry below
+	format := "%(refname)"
+	if sortByDate {
+		format += "%00%(objectname)%00%(committerdate:unix)"
 	}
 
 	cmdArgs := NewGitCmd("for-each-ref").
 		Arg(fmt.Sprintf("--sort=%s", sortOrder)).
-		Arg("--format=%(refname)").
+		Arg(fmt.Sprintf("--format=%s", format)).
 		Arg("refs/remotes").
 		ToArgv()
 
 	remoteBranches := []*models.RemoteBranch{}
+	tips := map[string]refTip{}
 	err := self.cmd.New(cmdArgs).DontLog().RunAndProcessLines(func(line string) (bool, error) {
-		line = strings.TrimSpace(line)
+		fields := strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(line), "\x00")
+		refName := fields[0]
 
-		split := strings.SplitN(line, "/", 4)
+		split := strings.SplitN(refName, "/", 4)
 		if len(split) != 4 {
 			return false, nil
 		}
@@ -152,11 +157,22 @@ func (self *RemoteLoader) getRemoteBranches() ([]*models.RemoteBranch, error) {
 				Name:       name,
 				RemoteName: remoteName,
 			})
+		if len(fields) == 3 {
+			tips[refName] = refTip{hash: fields[1], committerDate: fields[2]}
+		}
 		return false, nil
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	if sortByDate {
+		if err := sortRefsWithEqualDatesByAncestry(
+			self.cmd, self.version, remoteBranches, (*models.RemoteBranch).FullRefName, tips,
+		); err != nil {
+			self.Log.Errorf("Failed to sort remote branches by ancestry: %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+
 	return remoteBranches, nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/integration/tests/branch/sort_remote_branches_in_stack_order.go b/pkg/integration/tests/branch/sort_remote_branches_in_stack_order.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2a652a309
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/integration/tests/branch/sort_remote_branches_in_stack_order.go
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+package branch
+
+import (
+	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/config"
+	. "github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/integration/components"
+)
+
+var SortRemoteBranchesInStackOrder = NewIntegrationTest(NewIntegrationTestArgs{
+	Description:  "Sort remote branches that share a committer date so that a branch comes before the ones it is based on",
+	ExtraCmdArgs: []string{},
+	Skip:         false,
+	GitVersion:   AtLeast("2.41.0"),
+	SetupConfig: func(config *config.AppConfig) {
+		config.GetUserConfig().Git.RemoteBranchSortOrder = "date"
+	},
+	SetupRepo: func(shell *Shell) {
+		// Rebasing a stack of branches gives every commit it creates the same
+		// committer date; give these commits one date for the same effect.
+		date := "2024-01-01 10:00:00"
+
+		shell.
+			EmptyCommitWithDate("base", date).
+			NewBranch("branch-c").
+			EmptyCommitWithDate("c", date).
+			NewBranch("branch-a").
+			EmptyCommitWithDate("a", date).
+			NewBranch("branch-b").
+			EmptyCommitWithDate("b", date).
+			NewBranchFrom("unrelated", "master").
+			EmptyCommitWithDate("unrelated", date).
+			Checkout("master").
+			CloneIntoRemote("origin")
+	},
+	Run: func(t *TestDriver, keys config.KeybindingConfig) {
+		t.Views().Remotes().
+			Focus().
+			Lines(
+				Contains("origin").IsSelected(),
+			).
+			PressEnter()
+
+		t.Views().RemoteBranches().
+			IsFocused().
+			Lines(
+				Contains("branch-b").IsSelected(),
+				Contains("branch-a"),
+				Contains("branch-c"),
+				Contains("unrelated"),
+				Contains("master"),
+			)
+	},
+})
diff --git a/pkg/integration/tests/test_list.go b/pkg/integration/tests/test_list.go
index c7584bb35..04b01d475 100644
--- a/pkg/integration/tests/test_list.go
+++ b/pkg/integration/tests/test_list.go
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ var tests = []*components.IntegrationTest{
 	branch.SortLocalBranches,
 	branch.SortLocalBranchesInStackOrder,
 	branch.SortRemoteBranches,
+	branch.SortRemoteBranchesInStackOrder,
 	branch.SquashMerge,
 	branch.Suggestions,
 	branch.UnsetUpstream,