the hidden and visible revisions have no editable fork point

Error message

the hidden and visible revisions have no editable fork point

What it means

After traversing history, `gix_tix::command::rebase::prepare` collects `hidden_rebase_candidates()` — possible fork points between the hidden and visible revisions. Exactly one candidate is required to define the rebase base; when there are zero, it bails with this error because the hidden and visible histories do not intersect at an editable point.

Solutions

Choose a `-x/--hide` revision that is an actual ancestor/fork point of the visible commits.
Verify the relationship with `gix log --graph` across both hidden and visible revisions.
Re-hide the rewritten base if history was rewritten underneath you.
Explicitly specify the base instead of letting inference fail.

Example fix

// before
gix tix rebase todo -x unrelated-branch
// after
gix tix rebase todo -x main   # main is the shared fork point

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Check that the hidden revision is an ancestor/fork point of the visible history before rebasing via gix graph traversal.

Try / catch

match prepare(repo, &args) { Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("no editable fork point") => { /* select a different -x base that is an actual fork point */ } other => other }

Prevention

Choose -x revisions that genuinely fork from the visible commits.
Inspect the commit graph before rebasing rewritten or divergent histories.
Avoid hiding branches unrelated to the changes being rebased.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rebase prepare where the hidden revision(s) and the visible revisions share no candidate fork point — e.g. the hidden branch is fully disjoint from the visible history, so `candidates.is_empty()`.

Common situations: Hiding a branch that diverged completely from the visible commits; rebasing after history was rewritten so the old base no longer relates; specifying `-x` revisions unrelated to the commits being rebased.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of GitoxideLabs/gitoxide@e73179060b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/54dbfaa955abfab3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at gix-tix/src/command/rebase.rs:143

        &authors,
        &AtomicBool::new(false),
        |event| {
            match event {
                Event::Decorations(value) => decorations = value,
                Event::Commits(commits) => app.extend_commits(commits),
                Event::HiddenCommits(commits) => app.extend_hidden_commits(commits),
                Event::Complete(value) => graph = Some(value),
                Event::VisibleComplete | Event::Cancelled => {}
            }
            true
        },
    )?;
    let graph = graph.context("history traversal did not produce a graph")?;
    crate::update_hidden_branch_updates(&mut app, Some(&graph), &refs);
    let mut candidates = app.hidden_rebase_candidates();
    if candidates.len() != 1 {
        if candidates.is_empty() {
            anyhow::bail!("the hidden and visible revisions have no editable fork point");
        }
        candidates.sort_by_key(|(id, _)| *id);
        anyhow::bail!(
            "the revisions have multiple editable fork points: {}",
            candidates
                .iter()
                .map(|(id, _)| id.to_string())
                .collect::<Vec<_>>()
                .join(", ")
        );
    }
    let (base, scope) = candidates.pop().context("one rebase candidate was expected")?;
    let (onto, onto_kind) = if args.update_base {
        let onto = app
            .hidden_branch_update(base)
            .context("--update-base found no newer hidden local branch tip for the derived base")?;
        (onto, todo::OntoKind::UpdatedBase)
    } else {

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