diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -1068,6 +1068,9 @@
     b'rewrite', b'update-timestamp', default=False,
 )
 coreconfigitem(
+    b'rewrite', b'empty-successor', default=b'skip', experimental=True,
+)
+coreconfigitem(
     b'storage', b'new-repo-backend', default=b'revlogv1', experimental=True,
 )
 coreconfigitem(
diff --git a/mercurial/helptext/config.txt b/mercurial/helptext/config.txt
--- a/mercurial/helptext/config.txt
+++ b/mercurial/helptext/config.txt
@@ -1890,6 +1890,14 @@
     applicable for `hg amend`, `hg commit --amend` and `hg uncommit` in the
     current version.
 
+``empty-successor``
+
+    Control what happens with empty successors that are the result of rewrite
+    operations. If set to ``skip``, the successor is not created. If set to
+    ``keep``, the empty successor is created and kept.
+
+    Currently, no command considers this configuration. (EXPERIMENTAL)
+
 ``storage``
 -----------