jesseduffield/lazygit · info

Patch is still empty. Add some files or lines to your patch

Error message

Patch is still empty. Add some files or lines to your patch first.

What it means

Thrown by CustomPatchOptionsMenuAction.Call when the patch builder is Active() but IsEmpty(). This happens when a patch was started (files/lines were added at some point) but everything was subsequently removed — e.g. you toggled off the last file or all the selected lines — leaving an active-but-empty patch. The menu refuses to operate on an empty patch because applying or copying it is meaningless.

Source

Thrown at pkg/gui/controllers/custom_patch_options_menu_action.go:26

	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands/models"
	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gocui"
	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/controllers/helpers"
	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/types"
	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils"
	"github.com/samber/lo"
)

type CustomPatchOptionsMenuAction struct {
	c *ControllerCommon
}

func (self *CustomPatchOptionsMenuAction) Call() error {
	if !self.c.Git().Patch.PatchBuilder.Active() {
		return errors.New(self.c.Tr.NoPatchError)
	}

	if self.c.Git().Patch.PatchBuilder.IsEmpty() {
		return errors.New(self.c.Tr.EmptyPatchError)
	}

	menuItems := []*types.MenuItem{
		{
			Label:   self.c.Tr.ResetPatch,
			Tooltip: self.c.Tr.ResetPatchTooltip,
			OnPress: self.c.Helpers().PatchBuilding.Reset,
			Keys:    menuKey('c'),
		},
		{
			Label:   self.c.Tr.ApplyPatch,
			Tooltip: self.c.Tr.ApplyPatchTooltip,
			OnPress: func() error { return self.handleApplyPatch(false) },
			Keys:    menuKey('a'),
		},
		{
			Label:   self.c.Tr.ApplyPatchInReverse,
			Tooltip: self.c.Tr.ApplyPatchInReverseTooltip,

View on GitHub (pinned to c477a2959b)

Solutions

1. Re-add at least one file ('space' on a commit file) or line range to the patch
2. Or reset the patch entirely and start a fresh selection

// Require a non-empty patch before the options menu:
if !patchBuilder.Active() || patchBuilder.IsEmpty() {
    return errors.New("add files or lines to the patch first")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Adding a file/lines to the patch builder, then removing them all (toggling off with 'space' or deselecting lines), and pressing the custom patch options key without resetting the patch.

Common situations: Iterating on a partial patch selection and accidentally emptying it; stale patch state from a previous session in the same repo view.

Related errors

• No patch created yet. To start building a patch, use 'space'
• Cannot change context while in patch building mode because w
• No config file found
• Cannot change the rename similarity threshold while in patch
• {{disabledReason.Text}}

AI-assisted analysis of jesseduffield/lazygit@c477a2959b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9baf8104707f49d4. Report an issue: GitHub.