diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 774c64b..1e5fb92 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ Imports:
     assertthat,
     knitr,
     rmarkdown,
-    dplyr
+    dplyr,
+    git2r
 Suggests:
     roxygen2,
     testthat
diff --git a/R/gist_create_git.R b/R/gist_create_git.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b31485f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/gist_create_git.R
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#' Create a gist via git instead of the HTTP API
+#'
+#' @export
+#' @import git2r
+#'
+#' @param files Files to upload, must be in the same directory.
+#' @param description (character) Brief description of gist (optional)
+#' @param public (logical) Whether gist is public (default: TRUE)
+#' @param browse (logical) To open newly create gist in default browser (default: TRUE)
+#' @param ... Further args passed on to \code{link[httr]{POST}}
+#' @examples \dontrun{
+#' gist_create_git(files = "~/gitgist/stuff.md")
+#' gist_create_git(files = c("~/gitgist/stuff.md", "~/gitgist/icanhazallthedata.md"))
+#' }
+
+gist_create_git <- function(files, description = "", public = TRUE, browse = TRUE) {
+  
+  stopifnot(all(file.exists(files)))
+  stopifnot(length(unique(dirname(files))) == 1)
+  git <- git2r::init(dirname(files[[1]]))
+  
+  if (knit) {
+    allfiles <- list()
+    for (i in seq_along(files)) {
+      ff <- files[[i]]
+      dirpath <- dirname(ff)
+      orig_files <- ff
+      ff <- knit_render(ff, knitopts, renderopts)
+      if (artifacts) {
+        file_artifacts <- get_artifacts(ff, dirpath)
+        files <- c(ff, file_artifacts)
+      }
+      if (include_source) ff <- c(orig_files, ff)
+      allfiles[[i]] <- ff
+    }
+  } else {
+    allfiles <- path.expand(files)
+  }
+  
+  # add files
+  git2r::add(git, basename(allfiles))
+  # commit files
+  git2r::commit(git, message = "added files from gistr")
+  # create gist
+  gst <- cgist(description, public)
+  # add remote
+  git2r::remote_add(git, "gistr", sprintf("git@gist.github.com:/%s.git", gst$id))
+  # push up files
+  git2r::push(git, "gistr", "refs/heads/master")
+  # browse
+  if (browse) browse(gist)
+  return( gist )
+}
+
+cgist <- function(description, public) {
+  res <- httr::POST(paste0(ghbase(), '/gists'), 
+                    gist_auth(), 
+                    encode = "json",
+                    body = jsonlite::toJSON(list(
+                      description = description,
+                      public = public,
+                      files = list(
+                        ".gistr" = list(
+                          content = "gistr"
+                        )
+                      )
+                    ), auto_unbox = TRUE)
+  )
+  jsonlite::fromJSON(httr::content(res, "text"), FALSE)
+}