Git Branches Helper

• Interactive UI to view and switch branches
• Sorting by recently used
• Fuzzy search
• Fuzzy switch: git jump hlw → git switch hello-world
• Uses native git switch under the hood, supports all its parameters

Give it a ⭐️ if you like it. This really helps.

Install

npm install -g @pkitazos/git-jump

Usage

git jump

Run without arguments to launch the interactive UI.

• At first, branches are not sorted. Once you start switching around, git jump will track the history and sort the list, so that the most recently used branches are at the top and can be accessed faster.
• Navigate the list with ↓↑ arrows and hit enter ⏎ to switch into selected branch.
• On the left hand side of the list you'll see a number next to a brunch name. Use Option+<number> for quick switch (Alt+<number> on Windows and Linux).
• Start typing to filter the list. The search is fuzzy, you don't have to be precise.
• Ctrl+C to exit.

git jump <branch name>

Switches to a branch. When a single argument is provided, <branch name> can be just part of the name — git jump will look for the best matching local branch if git switch doesn't find an exact match.

git jump [--list | -l]

Shows a plain list of branches without interactive UI but with sorting.

git jump <branch name> <any native switch arguments>

You can use git jump as a drop-in replacement for native git switch. When additional arguments are provided, git jump proxies everything directly to git switch without fuzzy matching, so <branch name> must be exact. This mirrors the behavior of the interactive mode, where switching also requires an exact branch name.

For example git jump my-branch --discard-changes works just fine.

git jump new <branch name>

Creates a new branch and switches into it. Supports all native parameters of git switch, for example git jump new <branch name> --track origin/main.

git jump rename <branch name> <new branch name>

Renames a branch.

git jump delete <branch name> [<branch name>, ...]

Deletes one or multiple branches. No fuzzy matching here, of course 🙂.

How To Enable Option/Alt+<number> Shortcut

It might be disabled by default in your terminal, here is how to make it work in some apps.

VS Code integrated terminal

In your VS Code settings (settings.json), add:

"terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta": true

Ghostty

Add the following to your Ghostty config file (~/.config/ghostty/config):

macos-option-as-alt = true

Note: A full app restart (not just a new window) may be required for the change to take effect.

Zed integrated terminal

In your Zed settings (~/.config/zed/settings.json), add:

{
  "terminal": {
    "option_as_meta": true
  }
}

iTerm 2

In Preferences go to Profiles, select your profile and go to Keys. At the bottom set Left Option (⌥) Key to Esc+.

macOS Terminal

In Preferences go to Profiles, select your profile and go to Keyboard. Enable Use Option as Meta key checkbox.

Hyper

Open .hyper.js and add next line to the config section:

modifierKeys: { altIsMeta: true }