🚀 git-x – Superpowers for Git

git-x is a collection of smarter, faster, and more intuitive Git subcommands built to make your daily workflow suck less.

It wraps common Git actions in muscle-memory-friendly, no-brainer commands — perfect for solo developers, team leads, and anyone tired of typing git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all for the 400th time.

⚠️ PSA: Do you know shell tab completion? If so - I need your help! 🙏 See the Tab Completion section ⚠️

📚 Table of Contents

Why Does This Exist?
Installation
Example Commands
- clean-branches
- color-graph
- fixup
- graph
- health
- info
- large-files
- new
- prune-branches
- rename-branch
- since [ref]
- stash-branch
- summary
- sync
- undo
- upstream
- what [branch]
Git Integration: How git-x Just Works™
What's Under the Hood?
Command Transparency
Roadmap Ideas
Tab Completion
Built With
License

Why Does This Exist?

Git is powerful, but its UX is stuck in the early 2000s.

You're probably asking:

“Why is this branch here?”
“What changed since I last pushed?”
“Can I just get a clean, visual summary of this repo?”
“How do I undo that commit without wrecking everything?”

Most Git tools either:

Show too much (spammy logs, unreadable diffs)
Show too little (cryptic one-liners with no context)
Or require memorizing a dozen flags

git-x fixes that by giving you opinionated, purpose-built subcommands that just do the thing.

💡 Want to see git-x in action? Check out our Real-World Scenarios document to see exactly how git-x commands solve everyday developer problems like code review cleanup, branch naming mistakes, urgent context switching, and complex remote workflows.

Installation

cargo install git-x

Or clone and run manually:

git clone https://github.com/simeg/git-x
cd git-x
cargo install --path .

Example Commands

`clean-branches`

Delete all fully merged local branches (except protected ones)

git x clean-branches

Output:

🧹 Deleted 5 merged branches:
- feature/refactor
- bugfix/signup-typo
...

`color-graph`

Colorized Git log with branches, remotes, HEADs, and author info

git x color-graph

Output:

Enhanced version of git x graph with:

Full color support for branches, commits, and decorations
Author names and timestamps for each commit
Rich formatting that's easy to scan

(essentially wraps this)

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all --color=always --pretty=format:"%C(auto)%h%d %s %C(dim)(%an, %ar)%C(reset)"

`fixup`

Create fixup commits for easier interactive rebasing

git x fixup abc123
git x fixup abc123 --rebase

Output:

🔧 Creating fixup commit for abc123...
✅ Fixup commit created for abc123
💡 To squash the fixup commit, run: git rebase -i --autosquash abc123^

Flags:

--rebase — Automatically start interactive rebase with autosquash after creating fixup

Creates a fixup commit that can be automatically squashed during interactive rebase. Requires staged changes.

`graph`

Pretty Git log with branches, remotes, and HEADs

git x graph

Output:

(essentially wraps this)

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

`health`

Check repository health and identify potential issues

git x health

Output:

Repository Health Check
=========================

✓ Working directory is clean
✓ No untracked files
✓ No stale branches (older than 1 month)
✓ Repository size: 524K (healthy)
✓ No staged changes

Health check complete!

What it checks:

Working directory status - Detects uncommitted changes
Untracked files - Counts files not under version control
Stale branches - Identifies branches older than 1 month
Repository size - Warns about large repositories that may need cleanup
Staged changes - Shows files ready for commit

Useful for:

Daily repository maintenance
Pre-commit health checks
Identifying cleanup opportunities
Team onboarding (ensuring clean local state)

`info`

Show a high-level overview of the current repo

git x info

Output:

Repo: my-project
Branch: feature/auth
Tracking: origin/feature/auth
Ahead: 2 Behind: 0
Last Commit: "fix login bug" (2 hours ago)

`large-files`

Find largest files in repository history

git x large-files
git x large-files --limit 20 --threshold 5

Output:

🔍 Scanning repository for large files...

📁 Largest files in repository history:
  15.2 MB  assets/video.mp4
   8.7 MB  docs/presentation.pdf
   3.1 MB  images/hero-banner.png

💡 Found 3 files larger than 1.0 MB

Flags:

--limit <number> — Number of files to show (default: 10)
--threshold <MB> — Minimum file size in MB to include

Useful for identifying large files that may be slowing down your repository.

`new`

Create and switch to a new branch

git x new feature-branch
git x new hotfix --from main

Output:

🌿 Creating branch 'feature-branch' from 'current-branch'...
✅ Created and switched to branch 'feature-branch'

Flags:

--from <branch> — Base the new branch off a specific branch instead of current

Validates branch names and prevents common Git naming issues.

`prune-branches`

Deletes all local branches that have already been merged into the current branch, while skipping protected ones.

Useful for keeping your repo tidy after merging feature branches.

Defaults:

Protected branches: main, master, develop
Won't delete current branch
Will only delete branches that are fully merged

Flags:

--except <branches> — Comma-separated list of branch names to exclude from deletion

git x prune-branches --except "release,v1.0-temp"

`rename-branch`

Rename the current branch locally and on remote

git x rename-branch new-feature-name

Output:

🔄 Renaming branch 'old-name' to 'new-feature-name'...
✅ Branch renamed successfully

Safely renames your current branch by:

Renaming the local branch
Updating the remote tracking branch
Cleaning up old remote references

`since [ref]`

Show commits since a reference (e.g., d926b4b, my-branch, origin/main)

git x since origin/main

Output:

🔍 Commits since origin/main:
- 8f2d9b3 fix login bug
- b41a71e add auth test

`stash-branch`

Advanced stash management with branch integration

git x stash-branch create new-feature
git x stash-branch clean --older-than 7d
git x stash-branch apply-by-branch feature-work

Subcommands:

create <branch-name> — Create a new branch from a stash

--stash <ref> — Use specific stash (default: latest)

clean — Clean up old stashes

--older-than <time> — Remove stashes older than specified time
--dry-run — Show what would be cleaned without doing it

apply-by-branch <branch-name> — Apply stashes from a specific branch

--list — List matching stashes instead of applying

Helps manage stashes more effectively by associating them with branches.

`summary`

Show a short, changelog-style summary of recent commits

git x summary
git x summary --since "2 days ago"

Flags:

--since — Accepts natural date formats like "2 days ago", "last Monday", or exact dates like "2025-07-01". It uses Git's built-in date parser, so most human-readable expressions work.

Output:

🗞️ Commit summary since 3 days ago:

📅 2025-07-25
 - 🛠 fix: update token refresh logic (by Alice, 3 hours ago)
 - ✨ feat: add dark mode support (by Bob, 6 hours ago)

📅 2025-07-24
 - 🔥 remove unused dependencies (by Alice, 1 day ago)

📅 2025-07-23
 - 🐛 fix: handle null response in API call (by Carol, 2 days ago)

Groups commits by day
Shows commit message, author, and relative time
Useful for writing daily stand-ups, changelogs, or review summaries
Defaults to showing commits from the last 3 days
Can be customized using --since (e.g. --since "1 week ago")
Sorts commits newest-first within each day

`sync`

Sync current branch with upstream (fetch + rebase/merge)

git x sync
git x sync --merge

Output:

🔄 Syncing branch 'feature' with 'origin/feature'...
⬇️ Branch is 2 commit(s) behind upstream
✅ Successfully rebased onto upstream

Flags:

--merge — Use merge instead of rebase for integration

Automatically fetches from remote and integrates upstream changes into your current branch.

`undo`

Undo the last commit (without losing changes)

git x undo

Output:

Last commit undone (soft reset). Changes kept in working directory.

`upstream`

Manage upstream branch relationships

git x upstream status
git x upstream set origin/main
git x upstream sync-all --dry-run

Subcommands:

status — Show upstream status for all branches

🔗 Upstream status for all branches:
* main -> origin/main
  feature -> (no upstream)
  hotfix -> origin/hotfix

set <upstream> — Set upstream for current branch

sync-all — Sync all local branches with their upstreams

--dry-run — Show what would be synced without doing it
--merge — Use merge instead of rebase

Streamlines upstream branch management across your entire repository.

`what [branch]`

Show what's different between this branch and another (default: main)

git x what
git x what develop

Output:

Branch: feature/new-ui vs main
+ 4 commits ahead
- 2 commits behind
Changes:
 - + new_ui.js
 - ~ App.tsx
 - - old_ui.css

Command Transparency

git-x believes in complete transparency — there's no magic, no hidden behavior, and no surprise side effects.

Every git-x command is a thin wrapper around standard Git operations that you could run yourself. Want to know exactly what's happening under the hood? Check out our Command Internals Documentation.

Why this matters:

Trust — You can verify every operation before and after
Learning — Understand the Git commands you're actually running
Debugging — When something goes wrong, you know exactly what to investigate
Portability — You can replicate any git-x workflow with plain Git

Example: When you run git x graph, it literally executes:

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

No database calls, no hidden state, no magic — just Git doing Git things, with better UX.

Git Integration: How `git-x` Just Works™

Since git-x is installed as a standalone binary, Git automatically recognizes it as a subcommand when you type git x [command].

This is Git's standard extension mechanism — no configuration needed.

How it works:

You run git x info
Git looks for an executable called git-x in your $PATH
Git runs git-x info and displays the output

Why this rocks:

Zero setup required
Works in any Git repo
Integrates seamlessly with your existing Git workflow
All your Git aliases, hooks, and config still work

What's Under the Hood?

git-x is a thin, opinionated wrapper around native Git commands.

Philosophy:

No magic — Every git-x command maps to standard Git operations
Readable — You can see exactly what Git commands are being run
Predictable — Follows Git's existing patterns and conventions
Fast — Minimal overhead, direct subprocess calls

Example: git x graph literally runs:

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

Why Rust?

Fast startup — Sub-millisecond command execution
Zero dependencies — Single binary, no runtime requirements
Cross-platform — Works on macOS, Linux, Windows
Memory safe — No crashes, no memory leaks

Roadmap Ideas

git x stash: A smarter stash viewer with preview
git x prune: Aggressively delete stale branches (with dry-run)
git x inspect: Interactive blame / file history explorer

🚧 Tab Completion 🚧

I'm looking for help to get tab completion working! 🆘 By that I mean git x <TAB> should show available commands. I've given it my best shot without success 😅 so if anyone can help, that would be much appreciated!

Your shell expertise could make git-x so much more pleasant to use!

Built With

Language: Rust 🦀
Shell: Integrates cleanly with Bash, Zsh, Fish, etc.
Uses: native git under the hood — no black magic

License

MIT

git-x 0.4.0

🚀 git-x – Superpowers for Git

📚 Table of Contents

Why Does This Exist?

Installation

Example Commands

clean-branches

Output:

color-graph

Output:

fixup

Output:

graph

Output:

health

Output:

What it checks:

info

Output:

large-files

Output:

new

Output:

prune-branches

rename-branch

Output:

since [ref]

Output:

stash-branch

Subcommands:

summary

Output:

sync

Output:

undo

Output:

upstream

Subcommands:

what [branch]

Output:

Command Transparency

Git Integration: How git-x Just Works™

What's Under the Hood?

Roadmap Ideas

🚧 Tab Completion 🚧

Built With

License

`clean-branches`

`color-graph`

`fixup`

`graph`

`health`

`info`

`large-files`

`new`

`prune-branches`

`rename-branch`

`since [ref]`

`stash-branch`

`summary`

`sync`

`undo`

`upstream`

`what [branch]`

Git Integration: How `git-x` Just Works™