In my experience, making "gl commit" equivalent to "git commit -a" seems like a bad idea. When leading a team, especially of newer coders, one of the most effective ways I've found of keeping the git logs and the code base sane more generally, is to force people to review their own code at the time when they commit it. Individually adding each file with "git add -p" achieves this, and "git commit -a" squashes it.

Reading the methodology used to develop gitless yesterday was interesting, but if I recall correctly, I think it left something out. They looked at how often a software design allowed users to complete their intention, but the tool ideally not only should allow users to complete their intention, but should encourage users towards practices that increase the quality of the end product. While people may struggle with staging at first, I think it in the end encourages better software, which is my biggest concern.