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Git monitor · free and open source

gitst

A real-time, glanceable git status monitor for the terminal.

brew install dfallman/tap/gitst

View on GitHub macOS, Linux, and Windows

About

Gitst sits in a terminal pane beside your editor, your shell, and your coding agent, and shows what is happening to the repository as it happens: files changing, commits landing, pushes, fetches, merges, and rebases, local and remote.

It is read-only by design. Apart from fetching, it never changes the repository and never takes git’s index.lock, so it cannot get in the way of git commands run elsewhere, by you or by an agent. I wrote it because I want to see everything an agent does to a repo while still running git myself.

It also watches for things that should not be pushed: .env files, private keys, and tokens with a recognisable prefix, in untracked files, staged changes, and unpushed commits. It warns, and leaves the decision to you. Click anything to see its diff.

What it does

  • Changes

    Staged, unstaged, untracked, and conflicted files with line counts. Fresh edits are marked.

  • Activity

    A timeline of commits, checkouts, merges, rebases, pulls, pushes, stashes, and edits.

  • Commits and branches

    Recent history, with what hasn’t been pushed yet. Click anything to open it: diffs, commit details, and what is ahead or behind.

  • Possible secrets

    Spots .env files, private keys, and AWS, GitHub, Slack, and other tokens before they are pushed. Warns, never blocks.

  • Fits any pane

    Sections fold and columns drop out as the pane shrinks, down to a single line.

  • Keeps watch

    Warns about conflicts, a stuck index.lock, failed fetches, and config errors.

  • Read-only

    Monitors git, never manipulates it. The only thing it runs that changes the repository is git fetch: on a timer you set, when you ask, or never.

  • Your terminal’s colours

    Takes its palette from the terminal, so it follows your light or dark theme.

Who it’s for

  • You work beside a coding agent

    An agent can edit, commit, and push faster than you can read a diff. Gitst shows each change as it lands, so you know what the agent did before it tells you.

  • You’re on a team that pushes a lot

    Background fetches, on a schedule you choose, show what your team has pushed and what you haven’t yet. A glance tells you whether a fetch or merge went wrong.

  • You’re wary of git tools

    So am I. Gitst only ever reads, so it never gets in the way of your own git commands, or an agent’s. You stay in charge of git.

Install

With Homebrew, on macOS or Linux:

brew install dfallman/tap/gitst

Prebuilt binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows are on the latest release page, and the source is on GitHub. Needs git 2.31 or newer on your PATH.

Try it

cd my-projectgitst

Or gitst <path>. In a folder that isn’t a repository yet, it waits for git init or git clone.

Gitst is free and open source under the MIT licence. Read the source, report an issue, or contribute on GitHub.