gitpane 0.8.2

Multi-repo Git workspace dashboard TUI
Documentation

Monitor all your repos at a glance. See branch, dirty state, ahead/behind, active worktrees, changed files, and commit history without leaving the terminal.

Install

cargo install gitpane

That's it. No cloning, no building from source. Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Don't have Rust? Download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases. It is a single static binary with zero dependencies.

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -LO https://github.com/affromero/gitpane/releases/latest/download/gitpane-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
tar xzf gitpane-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz && sudo mv gitpane /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Intel)
curl -LO https://github.com/affromero/gitpane/releases/latest/download/gitpane-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
tar xzf gitpane-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz && sudo mv gitpane /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (x86_64, statically linked)
curl -LO https://github.com/affromero/gitpane/releases/latest/download/gitpane-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
tar xzf gitpane-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz && sudo mv gitpane /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (ARM64)
curl -LO https://github.com/affromero/gitpane/releases/latest/download/gitpane-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar xzf gitpane-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz && sudo mv gitpane /usr/local/bin/

On NetBSD? gitpane is available as a community-maintained pkgsrc package in devel/gitpane, thanks to @0323pin:

pkgin install gitpane                            # prebuilt binary package
cd /usr/pkgsrc/devel/gitpane && make install     # build from pkgsrc source

Then run:

gitpane                     # Scans ~/Code by default
gitpane --root ~/projects   # Scan a specific directory
gitpane diagnostic          # Print config, watcher, and workspace diagnostics

Update

If you installed with cargo, gitpane can update itself:

gitpane update              # checks for a newer release, then runs cargo install
cargo install gitpane       # the equivalent manual command, overwrites the old binary

If you installed from a GitHub Release, download the latest binary for your platform using the same commands from the install section above.

On NetBSD, update through pkgsrc instead of gitpane update, which shells out to cargo install and would replace the package-managed binary with a cargo-built one.

Why gitpane?

If you work across multiple repositories, such as microservices, monorepos with submodules, or a mix of projects, you know the pain of checking status one directory at a time. Existing TUI tools focus on one repo at a time:

Tool Multi repo Auto refresh Worktrees Mouse Commit graph Split diffs Push/Pull
gitpane Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
lazygit No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
gitui No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
tig No No No No Yes No No
git-delta No No No No No Yes (pager) No
grv No No No Yes Yes No No
git-summary Yes (list only) No No No No No No
mgitstatus Yes (list only) No No No No No No
gita Yes (CLI only) No No No No No Yes
gitbatch Yes (TUI) No No No No No Yes (batch)
gwq Yes (CLI) No Yes No No No No
Canopy Yes (CLI) No Yes No No No No

lazygit and gitui are excellent for deep single repo work like staging hunks, interactive rebase, and conflict resolution. gitpane is the workspace level dashboard. It shows every repo at once, lets you drill into anything, and keeps you in the terminal. They complement each other.

A newer category of worktree dashboards has grown up around parallel AI agents, such as gwq (worktree status list with tmux integration), Canopy, and git-worktree-manager. gitpane overlaps here, it expands each repo into its per worktree branch, ahead/behind, dirty, and submodule state, but pairs that with a full commit graph, split diffs, and remote ops the dashboard-only tools lack. With o to open any repo or worktree in a new tmux pane (or your editor), it is both the overview and the launchpad.

Screenshots

Three panel overview

Repos on the left show branch, dirty state (*), ahead/behind arrows (↑↓), worktree count (), dirty submodules (), unpushed submodule pointer (), stash count ($), and file count. Changes in the middle. Commit graph on the right.

Split diff view

Click a changed file (or press Enter) to see its diff side by side. File list stays navigable on the left.

Commit detail drill down

Click a commit in the graph to see its files. Click a file to see the commit diff. Layered Esc dismissal: diff → files → graph.

Features

  • Multi repo overview: Scans ~/Code (configurable) for git repos. It shows branch, dirty indicator (*), ahead/behind arrows (↑↓), worktree count (), dirty submodule (), unpushed submodule pointer (), stash count ($), and change count.
  • Worktree awareness: Shows the number of linked git worktrees per repo (⎇2). In the agentic AI era, tools like Claude Code create worktrees for parallel development. gitpane lets you see which repos have active parallel work.
  • Open / jump in: Press o (or the Open context menu item) to drop into the selected repo or worktree, a new tmux pane at its directory by default, or any [open] command you configure (cursor {path}, code {path}, ...). Turns the overview into a launchpad instead of a dead end.
  • Agent liveness: A marks any repo or worktree that has a live tmux pane open inside it, so at a glance you can see which parallel agents are actively working where. tmux only; toggle with [ui] show_liveness.
  • Filesystem awareness: Watches repo roots and Git metadata for commits, checkouts, and new repos. Local polling catches nested worktree file changes without overwhelming Linux inotify.
  • Commit graph: Lane based graph with colored box drawing characters, up to 200 commits.
  • Split diff views: Click a file to see its diff side by side. Click a commit to see its files and per file diffs.
  • Full mouse support: Click to select, right click for context menu, scroll wheel everywhere.
  • Push / Pull / Rebase: Right click context menu with git operations that account for ahead and behind state. Explicit origin <branch> is used for reliability.
  • Add and remove repos: Press a to add any repo with tab completing path input. Press d to remove. Press R to rescan.
  • Sort repos: Cycle between alphabetical and dirty first with s.
  • Copy to clipboard: Press y to copy selected item from any panel (OSC 52).
  • Configurable: TOML config for root dirs, scan depth, pinned repos, exclusions, frame rate.
  • Responsive layout: Three horizontal panels on wide terminals, vertical stack on narrow ones.
  • Cross platform: Linux, macOS, Windows.

Keybindings

Global

Key Action
? Toggle keybindings help overlay
Tab / Shift+Tab Cycle focus between panels
r Refresh all repo statuses
R Rescan directories for repos (clears exclusions)
g Reload git graph for selected repo
o Open selected repo/worktree (new tmux pane, or [open] command)
v Review selected repo/worktree's diff vs its base branch (new tmux window)
G Attach the live tmux session(s) for the selected repo/worktree
a Add a repo (opens path input with tab completion)
d Remove selected repo, or worktree if a worktree row is selected (with confirmation)
s Cycle sort order (Alphabetical / Dirty first)
w Toggle worktree subtree for the selected repo
S Toggle stash subtree for the selected repo
t Open the theme picker (live preview, Enter to persist)
y Copy selected item to clipboard
q Quit (or close diff if one is open)
Esc Navigate back through panels, then quit

Repos panel

Key Action
j / Next repo
k / Previous repo

Changes panel

Key Action
j / Next file
k / Previous file
Enter Open split diff view
Esc / h / Close diff view

Graph panel

Key Action
j / Next commit / file
k / Previous commit / file
h / l Scroll graph left / right
Enter Open commit files / file diff
Esc Close diff → close files → back
/ Search commits (message, author, short ID)
n / N Next / previous search match
f Toggle first parent mode
c Collapse / expand branch
H Expand all collapsed branches

Mouse

Action Effect
Left click Select item, switch panel focus
Click selected row Open diff / commit detail
Right click (repo list) Context menu (push, pull, copy path)
Scroll wheel Navigate lists or scroll diffs

Path input (a)

Key Action
Tab Autocomplete directory path (cycles matches)
Enter Add the repo
Esc Cancel
Ctrl+A / Home Cursor to start
Ctrl+E / End Cursor to end
Ctrl+U Clear line before cursor

Configuration

gitpane resolves its config file in this order (first existing file wins):

  1. $GITPANE_CONFIG (if set, treated as the full path; this overrides everything below and is also the save target)
  2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gitpane/config.toml (if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set and absolute)
  3. ~/.config/gitpane/config.toml (the XDG default, on every platform)
  4. The platform native location:
Platform Path
Linux ~/.config/gitpane/config.toml (same as 3)
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/gitpane/config.toml
Windows %APPDATA%\gitpane\config\config.toml

If no file is found at any candidate path, gitpane uses the built in defaults (root_dirs = ["~/Code"], scan_depth = 2). When saving after loading a file, gitpane writes back to the loaded path. When saving from defaults, it writes to $GITPANE_CONFIG, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gitpane/config.toml, ~/.config/gitpane/config.toml, or the platform native location, in that order.

gitpane logs the resolved path at startup (tracing info level on stderr).

# Directories to scan for git repositories
root_dirs = ["~/Code", "~/work"]

# Maximum directory depth for repo discovery
scan_depth = 2

# Always show these repos at the top
pinned_repos = ["~/Code/important-project"]

# Skip repos matching these directory names
excluded_repos = ["node_modules", ".cargo", "target"]

[watch]
debounce_ms = 500             # Filesystem change debounce (ms)
refresh_cooldown_ms = 5000    # Min ms between watcher triggered status refreshes per repo
watch_worktree_dirs = false   # Opt in to nested worktree watches; polling still catches changes
poll_local_secs = 5           # Local status poll interval (catches missed watcher events)
poll_fetch_secs = 30          # Remote fetch poll interval (updates ahead/behind from origin)
discovery_cooldown_secs = 5   # Min seconds between automatic rescans on root dir changes (new clones)

[ui]
frame_rate = 10              # Terminal refresh rate (fps)
check_for_updates = true     # Check for new versions on startup
update_position = "top-right" # Update notification position ("top-right" or "top-left")

[graph]
branches = "all"         # Branch filter: "all", "local", "remote", or "none"
label_max_len = 24       # Max length for branch/tag labels
show_stats = true        # Show +N/-M diff stats per commit

[open]
# Command run by `o` to open the selected repo/worktree. `{path}` is replaced
# with its directory. Unset: open a new tmux pane when running inside tmux.
command = "cursor {path}"

See examples/config.toml for a fully annotated example.

Opening a repo or worktree

Press o (or pick Open from the right click menu) to launch the highlighted repo, or worktree if a worktree row is selected, in its own directory.

  • Default (no config): when gitpane is running inside tmux, o opens a new tmux pane (tmux split-window) at the target directory. Outside tmux it shows a hint to configure [open] command (a command launches directly, with no tmux needed).
  • Custom: set [open] command to any launcher, with {path} standing in for the directory:
[open]
command = "tmux new-window -c {path}"   # new tmux window instead of a pane
# command = "cursor {path}"             # or your editor: code, zed, nvim wrapper, ...

The template is split on whitespace and run directly (no shell), so {path} is safe even with spaces, but other template arguments cannot contain spaces. Need a pipe or quoting? Wrap it: command = "sh -c 'code {path}'".

Example launchers (set as [open] command):

You want to... command
Drop a shell into the worktree (default inside tmux) (unset)
Start an AI agent in the selected worktree tmux new-window -c {path} claude
Open a side by side pane next to gitpane tmux split-window -h -c {path}
Edit the repo in Cursor / VS Code / Zed cursor {path} (or code {path}, zed {path})
Open a fresh tmux window to work in tmux new-window -c {path}

Placement ([open] placement, default command) controls where the command runs. With the default command, the command above is the launcher (run directly), which is why those recipes embed their own tmux …. Alternatively, let gitpane place a plain command for you, so you can direct it to a named window or pane:

[open]
command = "lazygit"
placement = "split-window -h -t agents"   # right of the 'agents' window
# placement = "split-window -v -t agents"  # below it
# placement = "new-window -t work:"        # a new window in session 'work'

So "right of <named>" is split-window -h -t <named> and "below" is split-window -v -t <named>. The path is supplied safely by gitpane (-c <dir>), so the placement string only carries tmux flags.

Prefer to choose per launch? Set placement = "ask" and gitpane pops a small picker listing your tmux windows ("Right of …", "Below …", or "New window") each time you press o/v. The fast path stays a fixed config string; ask is there when you want it. (inline runs the command in the current terminal by suspending gitpane — handy outside tmux.)

The selection drives the target: highlight a repo row and o opens the repo root; expand it with w and highlight a worktree row, and o opens that worktree instead. This is the parallel agents workflow, glance at the dashboard, press o on the worktree an agent is using, and you are in it.

Reviewing changes

Press v (or pick Review changes from the right click menu) to review the highlighted repo or worktree's diff against its base branch, in a new tmux window. This is the "what did the agent actually do" view: select a worktree, press v, read the diff, close the window.

By default it runs git diff {base}...HEAD, where {base} is the resolved default branch (origin/HEAD, falling back to origin/main / origin/master). Point it at a nicer viewer with [review] command:

[review]
command = "git diff {base}...HEAD | delta --side-by-side"
# base = "origin/develop"      # optional; default = the repo's resolved default branch
# placement = "split-window -h"  # beside gitpane instead of a new window (default)

The command runs via sh -c in the target directory, so pipes work; {base} and {path} are shell-quoted before substitution. [review] placement uses the same vocabulary as [open] placement (default new-window), so the same split-window -h -t <named> recipes direct the review window wherever you like. Viewers worth a look:

Tool What it gives
delta Side by side, syntax highlighted, line numbers
difftastic (difft) Structural diff, shows logic changes not whitespace noise
diffnav delta plus a GitHub style file tree
hunk Review first viewer built for agentic coders

Outside tmux the review runs inline: gitpane suspends, runs the viewer in your terminal (e.g. git diff through its pager), and restores when you quit it. Force this anywhere with placement = "inline". (Only the no-command tmux-pane case still needs tmux.)

Creating and removing worktrees

gitpane manages the worktree lifecycle for the parallel-agents workflow, so you can spin up and tear down task worktrees without leaving the dashboard.

  • Create: right click a repo row and pick New worktree…, type a branch name, press Enter. gitpane runs git worktree add <dir> -b <branch> and the new worktree appears under the repo.
  • Remove: select a worktree row (expand with w) and press d, or right click it and pick Remove worktree. After confirming, gitpane runs git worktree remove. A worktree with uncommitted changes is refused by git; commit or discard first.

New worktrees are created as a sibling of the repo (<repo>-<branch>). Put them somewhere else with [worktree] dir:

[worktree]
dir = "~/worktrees"   # each new worktree becomes <dir>/<repo>-<branch>

Going to a live session

A marker on a repo/worktree means a tmux pane is cwd'd inside it (a session has work parked there). Press G to open it — one session opens directly, several open a picker. Right click to see the session names: Open <session> active tmux (new tab) / (new window), depending on your terminal.

gitpane auto-detects your terminal and opens the session in a new tab (or window) — your current view never gets replaced. It never does an in-place tmux switch-client, which would strand you away from gitpane. Detected terminals:

Terminal Opens a…
WezTerm, kitty, GNOME Terminal, Konsole new tab
Ghostty, Alacritty new window (their CLI can't run a command in a tab)

For an unsupported terminal (e.g. Windows Terminal under WSL, which needs a distro-aware cmd.exe /c wt.exe … wsl.exe -e … form), set [goto] command (it's run as argv, {session} = the session name):

[goto]
command = "wezterm cli spawn -- tmux attach -t {session}"

Adding a terminal: append a row to the TERMINAL_GOTOS table in src/config.rs — the env var(s) that identify the terminal plus its new-tab/window command. The doc comment there explains the rules (prefer a tab, pass the tmux command as trailing argv, never switch-client).

Theming

gitpane ships two built in themes:

  • default, the original palette (used when theme is unset).
  • muted, softer 256 color indices for dark terminals where the default Light* colors feel too bright.
# In config.toml
theme = "muted"

To define a custom theme, drop a TOML file at <config_dir>/gitpane/themes/<name>.toml and set theme = "<name>". Any field you don't list falls back to the corresponding default slot, so a custom theme can be as small as one override:

# ~/.config/gitpane/themes/mine.toml
[repo_list]
stash = "Magenta"

[graph]
tag_label = "143"        # 256 color index
lane_palette = ["Red", "#5fafd7", "Cyan", "67", "Magenta", "Yellow"]

Color values accept ratatui's standard names ("Yellow", "LightMagenta", ...), 8 bit indices as bare integers ("67"), or 24 bit hex ("#5fafd7"). If $GITPANE_CONFIG points to a non XDG location, the themes/ directory next to that file is searched first.

Switching themes:

  • From inside the app: press t to open the picker. Up/Down (or j/k) cycles through themes with live preview, Enter saves the choice to config.toml, Esc cancels and restores.
  • From the shell: gitpane --theme muted overrides the active theme for one run without modifying config.toml.
  • List available themes: gitpane themes prints every built in and custom theme, with a marker on the currently resolved one.

Troubleshooting

For a copyable snapshot of the active config, scan roots, watcher settings, repo count, and CPU pressure warnings, run:

gitpane diagnostic
gitpane --root ~/projects diagnostic

gitpane shows no repositories

Run through these in order:

1. Check that gitpane is reading your config file.

gitpane prints the resolved config path at startup. Run gitpane with stderr captured:

RUST_LOG=gitpane=info gitpane 2>/tmp/gitpane.log
cat /tmp/gitpane.log

You should see loaded config path=... or no config file found, using defaults. If gitpane is not loading the file you expected, check the candidate paths in Configuration. On macOS, ~/.config/gitpane/config.toml works as well as the native ~/Library/Application Support/gitpane/config.toml.

To force a specific file:

GITPANE_CONFIG=/path/to/config.toml gitpane

You can also bypass the config entirely to confirm repo discovery:

gitpane --root "$HOME/src"

If --root finds your repos but the config does not, the file path or config contents are the likely issue.

2. Check that scan_depth is large enough.

scan_depth is the maximum directory depth from each entry in root_dirs at which gitpane will look for a .git directory. For a layout like ~/src/github.com/<owner>/<repo>/.git, the .git lives at depth 4, so you need scan_depth = 4 (or higher). Counting from the root:

~/src                                       depth 0
~/src/github.com                            depth 1
~/src/github.com/<owner>                    depth 2
~/src/github.com/<owner>/<repo>             depth 3
~/src/github.com/<owner>/<repo>/.git        depth 4

3. Check for symlinks in your tree.

The scanner does not follow symlinks. If any directory along the path to a repo is a symlink (for example ~/src/github.com pointing at /mnt/code/github.com), repos under it will be skipped.

find    "$HOME/src" -maxdepth 4 -name .git -type d -print
echo '... with -L (follows symlinks):'
find -L "$HOME/src" -maxdepth 4 -name .git -type d -print

If the second command finds repos and the first doesn't, that's the cause. Workarounds: point root_dirs at the symlink target directly, or list specific repos in pinned_repos.

4. Check whether .git is a directory or a file.

Linked git worktrees and some submodule layouts store .git as a file containing a gitdir: pointer, not a directory. The scanner only matches .git directories. To check one repo:

test -d "$HOME/src/github.com/affromero/gitpane/.git" && echo dir \
 || test -f "$HOME/src/github.com/affromero/gitpane/.git" && echo file

If it prints file, add the repo via pinned_repos instead, or open it explicitly with gitpane --root /path/to/parent.

5. Verbose logging.

RUST_LOG=gitpane=debug gitpane 2>/tmp/gitpane.log

Then inspect /tmp/gitpane.log for any errors during config load or repo scanning.

Architecture

flowchart TD
    subgraph rt["tokio runtime"]
        tui["Event loop<br/>(tui.rs)"]
        watcher["notify watcher<br/>(watcher.rs)"]
        app["Action dispatch<br/>(app/ handle_action)"]
        git["git2 via spawn_blocking<br/>(status · graph · commit_files · fetch)"]
        session["session/<br/>launcher (tmux/terminal) · liveness"]
        subgraph comps["Components"]
            repolist["RepoList"]
            filelist["FileList (split diff)"]
            gitgraph["GitGraph (drill down)"]
            overlays["ContextMenu · PathInput<br/>Picker · StatusBar"]
        end
    end

    kbd["Keyboard & mouse"]
    fs[("Filesystem")]
    cfg[("config.toml")]
    ui["Rendered UI"]

    kbd -->|crossterm events| tui
    fs -->|change events| watcher
    cfg -.->|load| app
    tui -->|Event| app
    watcher -->|Event| app
    app -->|Action| comps
    app <-->|spawn_blocking / results| git
    app -->|launch & attach| session
    comps -->|draw| ui
  • ratatui + crossterm: TUI rendering with full mouse support.
  • git2 (libgit2): Branch, status, ahead/behind, graph, commit diffs.
  • notify: Filesystem watching with configurable debounce.
  • tokio: Async runtime. Git queries run in spawn_blocking to keep the UI responsive.

Message passing architecture: terminal events → actions → component updates → render. Each component implements a Component trait with draw, handle_key_event, handle_mouse_event, and update.

Development

just run           # Build and run
just test          # Run test suite
just fmt           # Format code
just lint          # Run clippy with warnings denied
just audit         # Run cargo-audit security advisory checks
just coverage      # Generate lcov.info with cargo-llvm-cov
just docs          # Build docs with warnings denied
just ci            # fmt + lint + docs + test

CI runs formatting, clippy, MSRV checks, docs, tests, and release builds across Linux, macOS, and Windows. Security and coverage run as separate workflows so their README badges map to real checks.

Install the local hooks before contributing:

brew install pre-commit        # or: pipx install pre-commit
pre-commit install             # installs pre-commit and pre-push hooks
pre-commit run --all-files     # optional one-time full check

The pre-commit hook handles file hygiene, TOML/YAML validation, formatting, and clippy. The pre-push hook runs tests, audit, docs, and coverage.

Optional tooling for the full local suite:

cargo install cargo-audit cargo-llvm-cov

Project structure

src/
├── main.rs              # Entry point, CLI parsing
├── lib.rs               # Crate and module wiring
├── action.rs            # Action enum (message passing)
├── event.rs             # Terminal event types (incl. paste)
├── tui.rs               # Terminal setup, event loop
├── repo_id.rs           # Repo identity (path newtype)
├── watcher.rs           # Filesystem watcher to repo index mapping
├── diagnostic.rs        # Startup environment diagnostics
├── update_checker.rs    # GitHub release update check
├── app/                 # Main loop and action dispatch, split by concern
│   ├── mod.rs           # App state, run() event loop, helpers
│   ├── actions.rs       # handle_action (dispatch, first half)
│   ├── actions_extra.rs # handle_action_rest (dispatch, second half)
│   ├── launch.rs        # open/review/goto launching, git op spawning
│   ├── input.rs         # Key and mouse handling
│   └── render.rs        # Layout and drawing
├── config/              # TOML config load/save
│   ├── mod.rs           # Config structs, load/save
│   ├── defaults.rs      # serde defaults and Default impls
│   ├── terminal.rs      # Terminal auto-detect table for goto
│   └── load.rs          # Config path resolution
├── session/             # tmux and terminal session integration
│   ├── launcher.rs      # Placement planning, tmux/terminal launch
│   └── liveness.rs      # Live tmux pane detection per repo
├── components/
│   ├── mod.rs           # Component trait
│   ├── repo_list/       # Left panel: repos, status, ◉ live marker
│   ├── file_list.rs     # Middle panel: changed files + split diff
│   ├── git_graph/       # Right panel: commit graph and drill down
│   ├── context_menu.rs  # Right click overlay (grouped by topic)
│   ├── path_input.rs    # Add repo / new worktree input overlay
│   ├── picker.rs        # Generic selection overlay (placement, session)
│   ├── confirm_dialog.rs # Confirmation overlay
│   ├── theme_picker.rs  # Theme selection overlay
│   └── status_bar.rs    # Bottom bar with keybinding hints
└── git/
    ├── mod.rs
    ├── scanner.rs       # Repo discovery via walkdir
    ├── status/          # Branch, files, ahead/behind, submodules, worktrees
    ├── graph/           # Lane based commit graph builder
    ├── graph_render.rs  # Box drawing character rendering
    └── commit_files.rs  # Commit file list and per file diffs

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License

MIT