Switching Lanes

Run the following to list all lanes available in your workspace:

$bit lane list

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The output notifies of the current checkout lane and lists additional lanes that are available in the workspace:

Run the following command to switch to a lane (available locally) using its lane name:

$bit lane switch my-lane

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By default, components that do not already exist in your workspace, will not be checked out. To check out all components in a lane, run the command with the --get-all flag:

$bit lane switch my-lane --get-all

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If you have modified components in your workspace (that are not snapped), you can switch to a different lane and merge these component changes with the checked out components from the lane you are switching to:

$bit lane switch my-lane

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Provide the --merge flag with a merging strategy: theirs, ours or manual

To switch to a lane that is not available in your workspace, provide the command with the full lane ID:

$bit lane switch my-org.my-scope/my-lane

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Alternatively, run the following to import a lane and switch to it:

$bit lane import my-org.my-scope/my-lane

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When importing a lane, all its component will be checked out, including those that are not currently maintained in the workspace (similar to the bit switch LANE_ID --get-all)

When you switch to a lane, your workspace .bitmap file references that lane.

For example, the following switches to the my-lane lane:

$bit lane switch my-lane

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The .bitmap file is updated to reference that lane:

"_bit_lane": {
        "id": {
            "name": "my-lane",
            "scope": "my-org.my-scope"
        },
        "exported": false
    }
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Components listed in the .bitmap file are marked as isAvailableOnCurrentLane, if they are part of the checked-out lane.

{
    "my-component": {
        "scope": "",
        "version": "5bde67a71c29be5a6d256ab37130bb6a7499aef5",
        "mainFile": "index.ts",
        "rootDir": "my-scope/my-component",
        "onLanesOnly": true,
        "isAvailableOnCurrentLane": true
    },
}
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Components marked as onLanesOnly and isAvailableOnCurrentLane will be handled by Bit (and show up in commands like bit status and bit list), only when you are on that lane.

For example, the following workspace is now set to the my-lane lane:

$bit lane show

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The output confirms that the workspace is now set to the my-lane lane. Components in that lane are listed.

When listing the components in that workspace, the same components listed above are shown:

$bit list

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The output is as follows:

Note that new components will not show up in the output of bit lane show, but will show up in the output of bit list, as they are not part of any lane yet.

If you switch to "main lane" or another lane, the .bitmap file is updated accordingly.

For example, the following switches to the "main lane":

$bit lane switch main

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Components available only on the "my-lane" lane, are now set as isAvailableOnCurrentLane: false:

{
    "my-component-on-main": {
        "scope": "",
        "version": "5bde67a71c29be5a6d256ab37130bb6a7499aef5",
        "mainFile": "index.ts",
        "rootDir": "my-scope/my-component-on-main",
        "onLanesOnly": true,
        "isAvailableOnCurrentLane": false
    }
}
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Bit will ignore these components, unless you switch back to the "my-lane" lane.

For example, running the following, while still on the "main lane":

$bit list

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Will show no components are available in the workspace:

That means that the components listed in the .bitmap file are marked as isAvailableOnCurrentLane: false and are no longer handled by Bit.

When you run bit list you will only see components that are marked as isAvailableOnCurrentLane: true

Having the components' files in your workspace directory does not mean these components are part of that lane! This is contrary to Git, where files in your working directory are part of the branch you are on. To understand this better, let's look at the following scenario:

1. The hello-world component is in the workspace directory. A newer version of that component is in the my-lane lane.
2. The goodbye-world component is not in the workspace directory, but is in the my-lane lane.
3. The hello-moon component is in the workspace directory, and is not in the my-lane lane.

The following shows the workspace directory before switching to the my-lane lane:

Let's run the following to check out the my-lane lane:

$bit lane switch my-lane

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Now that the workspace has switched to my-lane lane, the workspace directory is updated as follows: