mediagit add

Add file contents to the staging area for the next commit.

Synopsis

mediagit add [OPTIONS] <PATH>...

Description

Adds the current content of specified files to the staging area (index), preparing them for inclusion in the next commit. MediaGit automatically handles:

Content deduplication: Identical content stored only once
Delta compression: Efficient storage of file modifications
Chunking: Large files split for optimal storage
Hash computation: SHA-256 content addressing

Arguments

`<PATH>...`

Files or directories to add. Can be:

Individual files: video.mp4, image.png
Directories: assets/, media/videos/
Glob patterns: *.jpg, videos/*.mp4

Options

`-A, --all`

Add all modified and new files in the working directory.

`-u, --update`

Add only modified files that are already tracked (ignore new files).

`-n, --dry-run`

Show what would be added without actually adding files.

`-v, --verbose`

Show detailed information about added files.

`-f, --force`

Add files even if they match .mediagitignore patterns.

`--no-chunking`

Disable automatic chunking for large files.

`--no-delta`

Disable delta compression (delta encoding is enabled by default).

`--no-parallel`

Process files sequentially (default is parallel using all CPU cores).

`-j, --jobs <N>`

Number of parallel worker threads (default: CPU count, max 8).

Examples

Add single file

$ mediagit add video.mp4
✓ Added video.mp4 (150.2 MB → 22.5 MB after compression)

Add multiple files

$ mediagit add image1.jpg image2.jpg video.mp4
✓ Added 3 files
  image1.jpg: 2.5 MB → 1.8 MB
  image2.jpg: 3.1 MB → 2.2 MB
  video.mp4: 150.2 MB → 22.5 MB
  Total: 155.8 MB → 26.5 MB (83% savings)

Add entire directory

$ mediagit add assets/
✓ Added 24 files from assets/
  Compression: 840.5 MB → 156.2 MB (81.4% savings)
  Deduplication: 3 files already exist

Add with glob pattern

$ mediagit add "*.psd"
✓ Added 5 PSD files
  total_design.psd: 450.2 MB → 89.1 MB
  header_mockup.psd: 120.5 MB → 28.3 MB
  ...

Add all files

$ mediagit add --all
✓ Added 42 files, removed 3 deleted files
  New files: 35
  Modified files: 7
  Deleted files: 3
  Total size: 2.1 GB → 384.2 MB (81.7% savings)

Dry run

$ mediagit add --dry-run *.mp4
Would add:
  video1.mp4 (150.2 MB)
  video2.mp4 (200.5 MB)
  video3.mp4 (180.3 MB)
Total: 531.0 MB (estimated: 95.6 MB after compression)

Verbose output

$ mediagit add -v large_video.mp4
Processing large_video.mp4...
  Size: 1.2 GB
  Chunks: 307 (4 MB each)
  Compression: zstd level 3
  Deduplication: 12 chunks already exist
  Delta encoding: Not applicable (new file)
✓ Added large_video.mp4: 1.2 GB → 180.5 MB (84.9% savings)
  New unique chunks: 295
  Deduplicated chunks: 12
  Time: 8.3s

Deduplication

MediaGit automatically deduplicates content:

$ mediagit add copy1.jpg
✓ Added copy1.jpg (5.2 MB → 3.8 MB)

$ mediagit add copy2.jpg
✓ Added copy2.jpg (5.2 MB → 0 bytes)
  ℹ File content identical to copy1.jpg (deduplicated)

Large File Handling

For files >100 MB, MediaGit provides progress indicators:

$ mediagit add huge_video.mov
Adding huge_video.mov...
[████████████████████] 100% | 4.2 GB / 4.2 GB | 45s
  Chunks processed: 1075/1075
  Compression: 4.2 GB → 620.3 MB (85.2% savings)
✓ Added huge_video.mov

Staging Area Status

View staged changes with mediagit status:

$ mediagit add video.mp4 image.jpg
$ mediagit status
On branch main

Changes to be committed:
  (use "mediagit restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)
        new file:   video.mp4
        new file:   image.jpg

Exit Status

0: All files added successfully
1: One or more files could not be added
2: Invalid options or arguments

Notes

Performance Tips

Batch operations: Add multiple files in one command for better performance
Parallel processing: MediaGit automatically uses multiple cores
Network optimization: For remote backends, files are chunked and uploaded in parallel

Storage Optimization

MediaGit optimizes storage through:

Content-addressable storage: Identical content stored once
Compression: Zstd or Brotli compression
Delta encoding: Store differences for similar files
Chunking: Efficient handling of large files

`.mediagitignore`

Create a .mediagitignore file in the repository root to prevent certain files from ever being staged. Uses the same glob syntax as .gitignore:

# .mediagitignore

# Ignore temporary files
*.tmp
*.bak
*.swp

# Ignore build output directories
build/
dist/
__pycache__/

# Ignore OS artifacts
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Negation: un-ignore a specific file matching a broader pattern
!important.tmp

Ignoring files example

$ cat .mediagitignore
*.tmp
build/

$ mediagit add --all
✓ Staged 5 file(s)
# file.tmp and build/ contents silently skipped

$ mediagit add --all --verbose
✓ Staged 5 file(s)
  ignored (.mediagitignore): file.tmp
  ignored (.mediagitignore): build/output.bin

Force-adding an ignored file

$ mediagit add important.tmp
Warning: 'important.tmp' is ignored by .mediagitignore — use --force to override

$ mediagit add --force important.tmp
✓ Staged 1 file(s)

MediaGit-Core Documentation