How can you merge two repositories while keeping all commit and contribution history?

[dascrapy]

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If you have two repositories and you want to unify them into one but don't want to lose your contribution or commit history.

[ghost]

Hello, I am not very familiar with Git, but I did manage to merge two and more repositories into one. (after a few unsuccessful attempts seeking help on the internet, I did manage to get assistance from here).

Here's what I did:
I wanted to merge repo-a into repo-b.
I opened repo-a with GitHub Desktop (cloned),
opened it in VSCode, and accessed the terminal in VSCode (bash).

$ git remote rm origin
$ git remote add origin url_to_repo-b
$ git fetch
$ git checkout main  # Adjust the branch name as needed
$ git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories

Now, all the files showed up in the same folder as repo-b.

$ git push origin main

I checked in GitHub Desktop if any changes were left to push and completed the process. In repo-b, all the files from both repositories with all commits were present. I deleted repo-a. In the contribution section, it is showing all commits made to repo-b with their respective date-time history.

Check the repo I merged in.

[reuelrai]

Thank you. was having trouble getting it right but it worked perfectly for me.

[rnv812]

Thank you, my contribution history is preserved after deleting merged repos 👍🏻

[andybeet]

thanks!! worked for me too! Just need to rename repo locally (since it is now poining to other repo)

[glory0fNothing]

A bit in the future here, but I would also like to say thank you for this. I tried 3 different ways before yours and none of them worked properly.
To anyone else doing the same, make sure that none of the files between the repos that share the same name. You'll have to change the name of one for the merge to work or it will throw an error at you.

[chandra-opsera]

git subtree add is better approach

[reuelrai]

Thanks... I will try it...

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On Wed, 7 May 2025 at 23:56, Chandra Rentachintala ***@***.***> wrote: git subtree add is better approach — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#75875 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BDT3PAG542RBXHVNBCVSNUL25JEFRAVCNFSM6AAAAABL4W4OWWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTGMBWGY2TGMI> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[johnmacha]

Thanks it worked for me too. Just faced some unrelated history issues but I solved it