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Claude edited this page Jul 12, 2026 · 37 revisions

Desktop Material

Desktop Material is an independent Material Design 3 (M3 Expressive) remake of GitHub Desktop. It is a fork of desktop/desktop (MIT) with the entire application shell rebuilt around Material Design 3 — animated light/dark theming, dynamic type and color tokens, and a browser-like, tabbed workspace — while keeping GitHub Desktop's complete Git workflow intact underneath.

On top of that shell, Desktop Material adds a large expansion of power-user features: multi-account sign-in (including several identities per host), per-account repository tabs with rich title styling, multi-repository cloning, automation (scheduled commit/push and pull, merge-all with Copilot conflict resolution), a GitHub Actions panel, a notification centre, and regex-powered search on every search bar.

Status: Desktop Material is in active development. Preview builds are published from the project's GitHub Releases. Feature-parity references come from desktop-plus (MIT).

Contents

Page What it covers
User Guide Task-oriented walkthrough of the headline features — sign-in, tabs, Settings history, multi-clone, one-click commit & push, notifications, Actions, UI scaling.
Automation Scheduled auto commit & push, auto pull, and merge-all — with the exact safety rules that gate each one.
Regex Guide How the search bars work: filter chips, regex mode, and the regex builder. Mirrors the in-app help.
Developer Guide Architecture for contributors — Electron main/renderer, the store/dispatcher state flow, dugite, per-account profile repos, the agent server, and the SCSS token system.
Agent API The built-in MCP server and local HTTP/CLI fallback for AI-agent control — what it exposes and how it is secured.

Feature highlights

  • Material Design 3 Expressive shell with animated light/dark theming and M3 color tokens.
  • Browser-like repository tabs — per-account and bound to repos, with inline rename and per-tab title styling (bold/italic/underline, size, color, font family, alignment).
  • Multi-account — multiple identities per host; each account carries its own tabs, repos, and settings.
  • Per-account settings in a local git repo — every settings or tabs change auto-commits. Open Edit → Settings History… (Ctrl+Alt+Z) for a non-modal timeline with lazy diffs, undo, redo, and restore; each history action appends an audit commit.

Live Settings history side sheet

  • Multi-clone — select many repositories with checkboxes, filter by org chips, clone in parallel or one-by-one, and export/import repo lists (URLs only).
  • Regex search everywhere — filter chips, a regex-mode toggle, and a full regex builder on every search bar.
  • One-click commit & push — Copilot writes the commit message.
  • Automation — scheduled auto commit & push and auto pull, with a global default and per-repo overrides.
  • Merge-all branches/worktrees into the default branch with Copilot conflict resolution, then delete merged branches and push.
  • GitHub Actions panel — workflow runs, status/branch/event filters, re-run / re-run-failed, job steps, an in-app log viewer, and a workflow_dispatch dialog.
  • Notification centre — a bell and side panel backed by its own local git repo; unread badge, mark read/unread, delete.
  • GitHub organization support — browse and clone full org repo lists, and publish into an org.
  • Dynamic UI scaling — a 50–200% slider plus auto-fit to window.
  • Non-modal dialogs that float without blocking the app and drag by their headers.
  • Built-in MCP server (plus a local HTTP/CLI fallback) for AI-agent control.
  • Self-hosted GitLab sign-in (endpoint + personal access token) and GitLab/Bitbucket integration.
  • Desktop-plus parity — commit search, commit graph, multiple stashes, repo pinning/grouping, pull-all, and more.

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