GitGood is a fully functional Electron desktop Git client wrapped in a medieval / crusader aesthetic (white, red, black). It drives your real system Git via simple-git — all standard Git terminology and behaviour is preserved, only the visuals are themed. No telemetry, no account, no cloud — just a fast local cockpit for your repositories.
- Real Git, real fast — shells out to your installed Git; the renderer is plain HTML/CSS/JS (no framework) for instant startup.
- Visual commit graph — lane-based DAG with drag-to-move ref pills, merge edges, and collapsible branch lines.
- Side-by-side & unified diffs — toggle per taste; clean file headers with the raw
diff --gitplumbing stripped out. - Per-file commit browser — pick a file from a commit to see just its changes, instead of loading everything at once.
- Restore files from any commit — select files (checkboxes + select-all) and bring their version into your working tree.
- Detached-HEAD aware — check out any commit, then return to your branch with one click.
- Five main themes — Crusader (default) plus Tyrian, Verdant, Midnight, and Sandstone.
- +175 alacritty themes to elevate your experience with the day to day use of the app.
- Open, initialize, and clone repositories (with SSH support and live clone progress)
- Recent-repositories list persisted across sessions
- Full-screen blocking loading overlay while a repo opens, so you never click into a half-loaded view
- SSH key generator ("Forge SSH Key")
- Lane-layout DAG rendered as SVG with colored lanes and merge connections
- Drag-to-move ref pills (branches/tags) directly on the graph
- Per-commit folding — collapse a branch line below a commit (double-click, right-click, or inline ▾)
- Global newest-N collapse toggle for very tall histories
- Commit hash is always visible and never clipped, even on a narrow pane; hover the description or hash to bring it forward
- Commit history with author, email, date, and hash
- Unified / Split (side-by-side) diff toggle — choice persists across sessions and applies everywhere
- Split view shows two clearly separated panes with a center divider and aligned add/remove rows
- Per-file browser in commit previews: a file list (with A / M / D / R status badges) + a single-file diff
- Git plumbing lines (
diff --git,index,---,+++, mode/rename markers) are filtered out for a clean read - Large-diff line cap with a graceful truncation notice
- LRU cache of recently viewed commit diffs
- Stage / unstage / discard individual files, multiple selections, or everything at once
- Conflict-aware listing with a 3-way conflict resolver
- Per-file diff with the same unified/split toggle as the rest of the app
- Stash system: create, apply, pop, drop — plus a stash browser
- Checkboxes on each file in a commit preview, with a Select all control and live selection count
- Right-click context menu: restore the selected file(s) to your working tree, or copy path(s)
- ↩ Restore selected button — runs
git checkout <commit> -- <files>behind a confirmation dialog
- Create, checkout, merge (smart merge), delete and force-delete branches
- Checkout remote branches as local
- Detached-HEAD checkout of any commit or tag, with a gold "Return to branch" banner
- View, copy URL, open in browser, and remove remotes
- Push / pull / fetch with ahead/behind badge indicators
- Search / filter the graph and history (matches message, author, email, or hash; supports multiple AND terms)
- Disk management sidebar — async repository size scan (only when you ask, never blocking)
- Full Git LFS support
- Context menus on commits, branches, files, stashes, and remotes
- Resizable panes (validated so a bad layout can never persist), collapsible sidebar sections, whole-sidebar toggle (
Ctrl+B) - Toast notifications and a live status bar (branch, change count, ahead/behind)
- Operation progress widget for long-running tasks
- Six color themes selectable in Settings → Appearance (swatch previews, persisted)
- Adjustable font scale
- Typography: Cinzel, MedievalSharp, EB Garamond, and JetBrains Mono
- Node.js 18+ — required only for first-time setup and for building the portable bundle
- Git installed and on your
PATH— GitGood drives your system Git throughsimple-git
From inside the GitGood folder:
# 1. install dependencies (first run only)
npm install
# 2. launch
npm startOr just use the bundled launchers, which install dependencies automatically on first run:
| Platform | Launch | Launch with DevTools |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | run-gitgood.bat |
run-gitgood-debug.bat |
| macOS / Linux | ./run-gitgood.sh |
./run-gitgood-debug.sh |
The whole folder (including node_modules) is self-contained — copy it to another machine with Node installed and run npm start without reinstalling.
npm run build:win # Windows portable .exe → dist/
npm run build:linux # Linux AppImage → dist/
npm run build:mac # macOS .dmg → dist/The Windows target produces a single self-contained .exe — no installation and no host dependencies.
GitGood/
├── package.json # Dependencies and build config
├── run-gitgood.{bat,sh} # One-click launchers (+ -debug variants)
├── src/
│ ├── main/
│ │ ├── main.js # Electron main process — all IPC + git operations
│ │ └── preload.js # Secure contextBridge to the renderer
│ ├── renderer/
│ │ ├── index.html # UI structure
│ │ ├── styles.css # Themes + all styling
│ │ └── renderer.js # All UI logic
│ └── assets/
│ └── icon.svg # App icon
└── README.md
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+O |
Open repository |
Ctrl+Shift+O |
Clone repository |
Ctrl+Enter |
Commit (when the commit summary is focused) |
Ctrl+B |
Toggle the sidebar |
Esc |
Close a modal / context menu / clear a search filter |
| Layer | Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop shell | Electron 31 | Cross-platform native window + Node access |
| Git engine | simple-git 3.x | Thin, reliable wrapper over your real Git |
| Renderer | Vanilla HTML / CSS / JS | No framework → tiny footprint, instant startup |
| Packaging | electron-builder | Portable .exe, AppImage, and .dmg targets |
| Typography | Cinzel · MedievalSharp · EB Garamond · JetBrains Mono | The medieval voice |
Released under the MIT License.
⚜ Deus vult ⚜
