commitizen-branch fails with exit code: 23 and message fatal: ..: '..' is outside repository #1923

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1. thaDude

   added

   type: bug

   on Apr 4, 2026
2. github-actions

   added

   issue-status: needs-triage

   os: macOShas issue on macOShas issue on macOS

   on Apr 4, 2026
3. natelandau commented on May 8, 2026

   

   natelandau

   on May 8, 2026

   More actions

   I ran in to the same problem, I think this hook depends on an args-substitution behavior that doesn't work in all pre-commit runners (I use Prek).

   As a workaround, I wrote my own local hook to get the expected behavior:

     - repo: local
       hooks:
         - id: commitizen-branch
           name: commitizen check branch
           entry: bash -c 'uv run --quiet cz check --rev-range "$PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF"' --
           language: system
           stages: [ pre-push ]
           pass_filenames: false
           always_run: true
4. mcsitter commented on Jul 28, 2026

   

   mcsitter

   on Jul 28, 2026

   More actions

   Some of my findings.

   Running against master, commitizen-branch fails with both prek and pre-commit, but differently.

   With prek, PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF is expanded while PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF remains literal ($PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..<sha>).

   With pre-commit, both variables remain literal ($PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF).

   Here is more info regarding the changes to the variables.

   The relevant changes were introduced in these pull requests:

   1. Default commitizen-branch hook arguments changed to use pre-commit variables

   PR: #1815

   Changed:
   args: [--rev-range, origin/HEAD..HEAD]

   to:

   args: [--rev-range, "$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF $PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF"]

   This introduced the use of PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF / PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF in the packaged hook configuration.

   2. commitizen-branch rev-range syntax changed

   PR: #1841

   Changed:

   args: [--rev-range, "$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF $PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF"]

   to:

   args: [--rev-range, "$PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF"]

   This changed the hook argument from two space-separated refs to the Git range syntax.

   3. Exit code changed from 3 to 23

   PR: #1941

   This changed Git command execution from shell-based execution to shell=False.

   After this change, the literal argument:

   $PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF

   was passed directly to Git instead of being expanded by the shell.

   The failure changed from:

   - exit code: 3

   to:

   - exit code: 23

   with:

   fatal: ambiguous argument '$PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.

   4. Expansion of environment variables in --rev-range

   PR: #2005

   Added explicit environment variable expansion in cz check --rev-range.

   This restored handling of:

   $PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..$PRE_COMMIT_TO_REF

   without using shell expansion.

   Additional detail:

   • Expansion of both variables was added here.
   • Expansion of a single variable can be observed after this change when only one environment variable is available, for example:
     $PRE_COMMIT_FROM_REF..00c7da778d77ffdd2e380415e3fd47bab286bc88

   Of course these PRs are linked, but i tested commits with this script which accepts a ref for commitizen to test the hook behaviour for a given tag or commit.

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   set -u
   set -o pipefail
   
   REV="${1:?Usage: $0 <commitizen-rev>}"
   
   ROOT=$(mktemp -d)
   REPO="$ROOT/repro"
   REMOTE="$ROOT/remote.git"
   
   echo "Testing Commitizen rev: $REV"
   echo "Temp dir: $ROOT"
   
   mkdir "$REPO"
   cd "$REPO"
   
   uv init >/dev/null
   uv add --dev prek >/dev/null
   
   cat > .pre-commit-config.yaml <<EOF
   default_install_hook_types:
     - pre-push
     - commit-msg
   
   repos:
     - repo: https://github.com/commitizen-tools/commitizen
       rev: $REV
       hooks:
         - id: commitizen
           stages: [commit-msg]
         - id: commitizen-branch
           stages: [pre-push]
   EOF
   
   git init -q
   
   uv run prek install --hook-type pre-push --hook-type commit-msg
   
   git config user.name "Test"
   git config user.email "test@example.com"
   
   git add .
   git commit -m "feat: initial commit"
   
   git branch -M main
   
   git init --bare -q "$REMOTE"
   
   git remote add origin "$REMOTE"
   
   git checkout -b test-commitizen-branch
   
   git commit --allow-empty -m "feat: reproduce issue"
   
   git push -u origin test-commitizen-branch
   

   Hope this helps!