🌿 Gitwig — A Minimal Terminal Git UI

Gitwig (from Git + Twig, representing the branches of a repository) is a lightweight terminal-based Git UI, designed as a fast and minimal alternative to GUI tools like SourceTree. Built with Rust and ratatui, Gitwig presents your Git-related items in a clean, bordered layout directly in the terminal.

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📸 Preview

(Coming soon — or add an asciinema/screenshot here!)

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✨ Features

• Fullscreen terminal UI using ratatui and crossterm
• Config-driven layout using config.toml
• Add / edit / delete items directly from the UI — changes persist back to the config file
• Per-item status indicators — see at a glance whether each item is a git repo, a plain directory, or missing
• Press Enter on any item to open a full-screen Detail view with branch, HEAD commit, remotes, and working-tree status (for git repos) or a clear "plain directory" / "missing" report otherwise
• Bordered items displayed inside a main border
• Mode-aware status bar that always shows the relevant shortcuts

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⌨️ Keybindings

Key	Mode	Action
↑ / k	Normal	Move selection up
↓ / j	Normal	Move selection down
a	Normal	Add a new item (via interactive fzf search)
e	Normal	Edit the selected item
d	Normal	Delete the selected item (asks)
R	Normal	Refresh status of selected item
f	Normal	Enter repository search mode
p	Normal	Toggle pin status of selected item
o	Normal	Cycle list sorting mode (Custom → Alphabetical → Recent → Changes)
O	Normal	Toggle list sorting direction (ascending vs. reversed)
g	Normal	Launch the preferred Git client for selected repository (configurable in settings, default is gitui)
s	Normal	Open options/settings page
Enter	Normal / Commits list	Open Detail view for selected item / Inspect selected commit
?	Normal / Help	Toggle the shortcut overlay
⎋ / q	Normal	Quit
Esc	Normal	Clear active repository search filter
Enter	Editing	Save the typed text and persist
Esc	Editing	Cancel without saving
Enter	RepoSearchInput	Apply repository search and return to Normal mode
Esc	RepoSearchInput	Clear repository search and return to Normal mode
Enter	Settings (Edit)	Save settings edit
Esc	Settings (Edit)	Cancel settings edit
Esc / q	Settings	Exit Settings and return to Home
↑ / ↓ / k / j	Settings	Navigate setting fields
Enter / Space	Settings	Toggle / Edit selected setting
Backspace	Editing	Erase one character
y / Y	Confirm Dialog	Confirm action (delete item/branch/tag, push branch/tag/all tags, abort/continue merge)
n / N / Esc	Confirm Dialog	Cancel action
? / Esc / q	Help	Close the help overlay
Esc / q	Detail	Return to the list
Tab / Shift+Tab	Detail	Cycle active detail view tabs (Workspace → Files → Graph → Branches → Tags → Remotes → Stashes → Overview)
w / W	Detail	Cycle panel focus forward (w) / backward (W)
1 - 8	Detail	Jump directly to tab: Workspace (1), Files (2), Graph (3), Branches (4), Tags (5), Remotes (6), Stashes (7), or Overview (8)
↑ / k	Detail	Move selection or scroll list/diff/tree up
↓ / j	Detail	Move selection or scroll list/diff/tree down
PgUp / PgDn	Detail / Normal / Settings	Scroll list/diff/tree/settings by configured page_size
Home / End	Detail / Normal / Settings	Jump to top / bottom of list/diff/tree/settings
Enter	Detail	Stage/Unstage file (Workspace tab), checkout branch (Branches tab), checkout tag (Tags tab), or Inspect commit
Shift+F	Detail	Fetch selected local branch from remote (Branches tab)
f / F	Detail	Fetch selected remote (Remotes tab)
p	Detail	Pull selected local branch from remote (Branches tab) or Push selected tag (Tags tab; asks confirmation)
Shift+P	Detail	Push selected local branch to remote (Branches tab) or Push all tags (Tags tab; asks confirmation)
← / →	Detail	Focus Local/Remote branch (Branches tab) or Local/Remote tag (Tags tab)
← / → or < / > or , / .	Detail	Collapse/Expand directory (Files tab)
f	Detail	Fuzzy find files (Files tab)
c	Detail	Open commit prompt (Workspace tab or Inspect view), or Create branch from HEAD (Branches tab)
a	Detail	Stage All (Workspace tab Unstaged focus) / Unstage All (Workspace tab Staged focus) or Apply stash (Stashes tab)
x	Detail	Discard selected file changes (Workspace tab or Inspect view; asks confirmation)
X	Detail	Discard all changes in repository (Workspace tab or Inspect view; asks confirmation)
i	Detail	Interactive rebase from selected commit (Workspace tab commits list)
d	Detail	Delete selected branch (Branches tab; asks confirmation), tag (Tags tab; asks confirmation), or stash (Stashes tab; asks confirmation)
m	Detail	Merge selected branch into current branch (Branches tab; asks confirmation)
r	Detail	Rebase current branch onto selected branch (Branches tab; asks confirmation)
o	Detail	Accept OURS version of conflict (Workspace tab Conflicts / ConflictDiff)
t	Detail	Accept THEIRS version of conflict (Workspace tab Conflicts / ConflictDiff)
r	Detail	Mark conflict as resolved (Workspace tab Conflicts / ConflictDiff)
A	Detail	Abort the merge (Workspace tab Conflicts / ConflictDiff; asks confirmation)
C	Detail	Continue the merge (Workspace tab Conflicts / ConflictDiff; asks confirmation)
f	Detail	Open search column picker and go to logs (Workspace tab)
R	Detail	Resync the active tab state
?	Detail	Toggle detail help overlay
Esc / q / ?	DetailHelp	Close detail help overlay
⌃C	CommitInput (Edit)	Finish editing commit message (switches to confirm state)
↵ (Enter)	CommitInput (Edit)	Insert a newline
Backspace	CommitInput (Edit)	Erase one character from commit message
Esc	CommitInput	Cancel commit and return to Detail view
↵ (Enter)	CommitInput (Confirm)	Submit / execute Git commit
e / E	CommitInput (Confirm)	Edit / resume typing commit message
a / A / Space	CommitInput (Confirm)	Toggle amend last commit option
Left-Click (Mouse)	Normal	Select the clicked item
Double-Click (Mouse)	Normal	Open Detail view for clicked item
Left-Click (Mouse)	Detail	Shift focus to the clicked panel or change active tab
Left-Click + Drag (Mouse)	Detail	Drag panel boundary splitters to dynamically resize layout splits
Scroll Wheel (Mouse)	Normal / Detail	Scroll selected list, graph view, branches, tree items, or unified diffs

Press ? at any time in normal mode to see the full keybinding reference as a centered popup. The help overlay only handles the dismissal keys — your selection and scroll position are preserved underneath.

The selected card's border color mirrors the current operation mode:

• Default (Muted) — browsing the list (unselected).
• Cyan — browsing the list (selected).
• Yellow — typing into the input field during add/edit; the selected card's border turns yellow so you can see exactly which item will be replaced.
• Red — awaiting delete confirmation; the doomed card's border turns red.

The selected item is marked with a left-edge ▌ accent, a colored border, and bold text. In ADDING and EDITING modes the real terminal cursor sits at the end of your input so you can see exactly where the next character will land.

📂 Item status indicators

Each card shows a colored symbol on the right reflecting the item's filesystem state:

• ● git — the item is a directory containing a .git entry (a git repository, worktree, or submodule).
• ○ dir — the item is a directory, but not a git repository.
• ✕ missing — the item is not a directory on this machine (doesn't exist, is a file, or isn't accessible).

For git repositories the indicator also shows compact counts for any non-zero values:

Suffix	Meaning	Colour
N+	N files staged for commit	Cyan
N!	N files modified but not staged	Yellow
N?	N untracked files	Muted
N↑	N commits ahead of upstream (needs push)	Bold
N↓	N commits behind upstream (needs pull/fetch)	Yellow

When all counts are zero the indicator shows ● clean. When the branch has no configured upstream, only the worktree counts appear (no ↑/↓). Press ? at any time to see the legend inside the app.

Items support ~ and ~/... expansion, so ~/code/gitwig resolves to your home directory. Statuses are recomputed only when you add, edit, or delete an item — they are not polled in the background. Press r to manually refresh the selected item's status if you've changed the filesystem outside the app (e.g. git init in a directory that was previously ○ dir); the status bar briefly flashes Refreshed so you know the check ran.

🔍 Detail view

Press Enter on a selected item to open a full-screen Detail view. The detail view supports eight tabs for git repositories: Details, Files, Graph, Branches, Tags, Remotes, Stashes, and Overview.

• Press 1 to switch to the Details tab.
• Press 2 to switch to the Files tab.
• Press 3 to switch to the Graph tab.
• Press 4 to switch to the Branches tab.
• Press 5 to switch to the Tags tab.
• Press 6 to switch to the Remotes tab.
• Press 7 to switch to the Stashes tab.
• Press 8 to switch to the Overview tab.
• Alternatively, press Tab / Shift+Tab to cycle forward/backward through the tabs.
• You can also click on the tab headers directly with the mouse to switch tabs. Press Esc or q to return to the repository list.

Panel Layout & Navigation (Workspace Tab)

For a git repository, the Workspace tab is split into multiple rounded panels with a 40:60 width ratio on the bottom:

• Commits (top 50%): Lists the recent commits in the repository. If there are uncommitted changes, a special row named Uncommitted changes will be pinned to the very top.
• Staging Area / Changed Files (bottom-left 40%): Lists files that are modified, staged, or untracked. When Uncommitted changes is selected at the top, this panel is split vertically into Staged and Unstaged sections. When a real commit is selected, it is split horizontally, showing the list of files modified in that commit in the top half, and full commit details (hash, author, date, refs, and message) in the bottom half.
• Staging Details (bottom-right 60%): Displays the unified diff of the selected file.

Files Tab

The Files tab displays all tracked files in the repository as an interactive directory tree on the left, and a preview panel on the right.

• Directory nodes are prefixed with > when collapsed and ▼ when expanded.
• File nodes are prefixed with 📄.
• Expand Folder: Select a collapsed directory and press > or . or Right-Arrow.
• Collapse Folder: Select an expanded directory and press < or , or Left-Arrow.
• Preview Panel: Selecting a file displays its content (up to 100 KB) on the right; selecting a directory displays a list of files and folders directly inside it.

Graph Tab

The Graph tab renders the git log history graph / branch visualization graph.

Branches Tab

The Branches tab is split vertically into left and right panels:

• Local Branches (left): Lists local branches in the repository, sorting the active branch to the top marked with .
• Remote Branches (right): Lists remote tracking branches.

You can focus either branch panel by pressing w / W or using the ← / → arrow keys.

Tags Tab

The Tags tab lists both local tags and remote tags.

• Select a local tag and press ↵ (Enter) to checkout that tag.
• Select any tag and press d / D to delete it (asks for confirmation).
• Press p to push the selected tag to the remote (asks for confirmation).
• Press P (Shift+P) to push all tags to the remote (asks for confirmation).

Remotes Tab

The Remotes tab lists configured remotes for the repository.

Stashes Tab

The Stashes tab lists all available stashes in the repository with a horizontally split layout:

• Stashes (Top-Left): Lists all stashes. Selecting a stash automatically highlights the first file in the files list. Press d / D to delete the selected stash, or a / A to apply it (both options ask for confirmation). When applying, you can toggle whether to delete the stash after applying (default is Yes).
• Stashed Files (Bottom-Left): Lists the files changed/saved in the selected stash.
• Stash Diff (Right): Shows the unified patch diff of the selected file.
• Navigate stashes or stashed files using ↑/k and ↓/j.

Overview Tab

The Overview tab displays key repository details including resolved paths, branch upstream tracking info, configured remotes, and general status counts.

Navigation & Interaction

You can navigate and interact with these panels in the following ways:

• Cycle Focus: In the Details, Files, Branches, Tags, and Stashes tabs, press w / W to cycle panel focus:
  • Workspace tab: Commits → Staged → Unstaged → StagingDetails.
  • Files tab: Files (left tree list) ↔ FileContent (right preview panel).
  • Branches tab: Local Branches ↔ Remote Branches.
  • Tags tab: Local Tags ↔ Remote Tags.
  • Stashes tab: Stashes → Stashed Files → StagingDetails. Focus defaults to the main panel of the tab when switching tabs (e.g., Commits on Workspace tab, Files on Files tab, Local Branches on Branches tab, Local Tags on Tags tab, Stashes on Stashes tab).
• Mouse Click to Focus/Select: Left-click inside any panel's boundaries (including branch/tag/stash list panels, stashed files list, files list, and the files tab content preview panel) to focus it immediately.
• Resize Split Panels: Left-click and drag the vertical or horizontal boundary splitter lines between panels to resize them dynamically. This is supported in:
  • Workspace / Inspect: Main vertical split (commits vs details), bottom horizontal split (left list vs right diff), and left vertical split (staged vs unstaged or commit details vs files list).
  • Files: Horizontal split (repository files tree vs file content preview).
  • Branches: Horizontal split (local branches vs remote branches).
  • Stashes: Horizontal split (stash lists vs diff) and left vertical split (stashes list vs stashed files).
  • Overview: Horizontal split (overview info vs committer stats).
• Mouse Wheel Scroll: Use the mouse wheel to scroll vertically through the active list, commit history, branch list, files list, stashed files list, staging details diff, or files tab preview panel.
• Navigate Lists: Use ↑/k and ↓/j to select a commit, file, branch, tag, stash, stashed file, or file tree item in the active list.
• Scroll Diff: When the Staging Details panel is focused, you can scroll the unified diff text vertically using ↑/k and ↓/j (line-by-line) or PgUp/PgDn (page-by-page).
• Scroll File Content: When the files tab FileContent preview panel is focused, you can scroll the preview text vertically using ↑/k and ↓/j (line-by-line) or PgUp/PgDn (page-by-page).
• Stage/Unstage Files: Select the Uncommitted changes row at the top, select a file in either the Staged or Unstaged list, and press Enter to stage or unstage that file instantly. Press a to Stage All (when focused on Unstaged) or Unstage All (when focused on Staged), which automatically shifts panel focus to the opposite list. Press x to discard changes in the selected file, or X to discard all changes in the repository (both ask for confirmation before performing).
• Network Progress Bar: Any long-running network operations (such as Fetch, Pull, or Push) will display a centering animated progress bar popup so the UI thread remains responsive and visual feedback is clear. If an operation hangs or takes too long, you can press Esc to force-dismiss the progress popup and resume TUI interaction immediately.
• Multi-Remote Selection Picker: For write operations (pushing branch/tags, deleting tags, fetching tags), if the repository has multiple configured remotes and no upstream tracking branch is set, a selection picker popup will appear allowing you to select which remote to target using ↑↓ and Enter.
• Manage Branches: While on the Branches tab:
  • Select any local branch (other than the currently active one) and press Enter to check it out (safe checkout strategy applies).
  • Select any local branch that has an upstream configuration and press Shift+F to fetch updates for its remote in the background.
  • Select any local branch and press p to pull updates from its remote in the background (can only pull into the currently checked-out branch).
  • Select any local branch and press Shift+P to push it to the remote in the background (if no upstream is configured, it will attempt to push to the first configured remote and set it as the upstream tracking branch).
  • Select any remote branch and press Enter to check it out (this will switch to the branch, creating a local tracking branch if it doesn't already exist).
  • Press c / C to create a new branch from the currently checked out branch (or HEAD). A popup dialog will prompt for the new branch name.
  • Select any local or remote-tracking branch and press d / D to delete it. A confirmation dialog will prompt before performing the deletion. (The currently checked out branch cannot be deleted).
• Commit Staged Changes / Amend Last Commit: Press c from the Workspace tab or from the Inspect view to open a centered Commit popup window (active if there are staged changes OR a prior HEAD commit exists to amend).
  • Compose Mode: Type your commit message. Press Ctrl+C to lock in the text and switch to confirmation state, press Enter to insert a newline, or Esc to cancel.
  • Confirm Mode: Press Enter to execute the commit, e to return to composing/editing the message, a / A / Space to toggle the "Amend last commit" option, or Esc/q to close the popup. Toggling amend to active when the buffer is empty automatically populates the text box with the message from the last commit.

For a plain directory the view confirms the resolved path and explains that no .git entry was found.

For a missing item the view confirms the resolved path and notes that the path does not exist or isn't accessible.

The detail snapshot is taken once when you press Enter — it is not refreshed while open (except for staging/unstaging actions which refresh dynamically). Close and re-open to re-read the repository state.

After every successful add / edit / delete, the status bar briefly shows Saved or Deleted. If the write fails, the status bar shows Save failed: <reason> instead — your in-memory list still reflects the change, but the file on disk does not.

🔀 Main Page Sorting

The main page repository list can be sorted dynamically using shortcuts:

• Cycle Sort Order (o): Cycles through the sorting modes: Custom (preserves your manual list order), Alphabetical, Recent Visit (tracks when you enter a repository's detail view), and Latest Changes (based on HEAD commit timestamps or folder modification times).
• Toggle Sort Direction (O): Toggles ascending vs. descending/reversed sort direction. The top border displays the active sort mode (e.g. Sort: Alphabetical (Rev)).

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🔧 Configuration

Gitwig stores its config in ~/.gitwig/config.toml. The directory is created automatically on first launch.

First-run migration

If ~/.gitwig/config.toml doesn't exist yet, Gitwig looks for an existing config to migrate from:

1. A path passed as the first CLI argument (gitwig path/to/config.toml).
2. ./config/config.toml relative to the current working directory.
3. ./config/config.toml relative to the executable.
4. ~/.config/gitwig/config.toml (new XDG location), ~/.config/twig/config.toml (legacy Twig XDG location), or ~/.twig/config.toml (legacy Twig home location).
5. Nothing found — a default config is written to ~/.gitwig/config.toml.

After the first run the migrated (or generated) file becomes the sole source of truth; the original is left untouched.

Example: config.toml

items = ["Repo A", "Repo B", "Side Project", "Test Repo"]

# Event-loop poll interval in milliseconds (default: 100).
# Lower → more responsive input, higher → less CPU usage. Sane range: 16–500.
poll_interval_ms = 100

# Sorting preferences for the main page list
sort_by = "custom"
sort_reverse = false

# Enable compatibility mode to use simple ASCII symbols
compatibility_mode = false

Config keys

Key	Type	Default	Description
items	[String]	[]	Paths shown in the main list. Managed by the in-app a (fzf search) / e / d shortcuts.
poll_interval_ms	Integer	100	How long (ms) the event loop waits between input checks. Lower feels snappier; higher saves CPU.
max_commits	Integer	0	Maximum commits to load in workspace view. Set to 0 for unlimited.
page_size	Integer	10	Number of lines/items scrolled by Page Up / Page Down.
sort_by	String	"custom"	Main list sorting preference ("custom", "alphabetical", "recent_visit", "latest_changes"). Managed by o.
sort_reverse	Boolean	false	Inverts the main list sorting direction (ascending vs. descending). Managed by O.
theme	String	"default"	Active theme configuration name. Managed in Settings s.
compatibility_mode	Boolean	false	Enable to use simple ASCII symbols instead of rich Unicode icons/emojis (prevents layout alignment issues in restricted terminals like RustRover's built-in terminal).
fzf.max_depth	Integer	3	Maximum directory depth to search for git repositories during discovery.
fzf.start_dir	String	"$HOME"	Starting directory for interactive repository discovery via FZF.
fzf.excludes	[String]	[".git", "node_modules", "target"]	Directory names excluded from FZF discovery.

Gitwig writes back to whichever file it loaded from, so edits made in the UI persist across runs.

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🎨 Font & Symbol Support

Gitwig uses rich Unicode symbols, icons, and Nerd Font glyphs (such as ●, ○, ✕, ▶, , etc.) to provide a premium, modern visual experience directly in the terminal.

To display these symbols correctly without layout breakage or replacement characters (e.g., question marks or empty blocks), your terminal emulator must use a font containing Nerd Font glyphs.

Recommended Font (Bundled)

We have bundled the clean and highly popular JetBrains Mono Nerd Font inside this repository:

• Location: resources/fonts/JetBrainsMonoNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf

📥 How to Install the Font:

• macOS: Open the resources/fonts/ directory in Finder, double-click JetBrainsMonoNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf, and click Install Font.
• Windows: Right-click JetBrainsMonoNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf and select Install (or Install for all users).
• Linux: Copy the font file to your local font directory:

  mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
  cp resources/fonts/JetBrainsMonoNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/
  fc-cache -fv
  

⚙️ How to Configure Your Terminal:

Open your terminal emulator settings (e.g. iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, Windows Terminal, macOS Terminal) and set the active font to JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono (or JetBrainsMonoNF).

🛠️ Compatibility Mode (No Font Install Required)

If you prefer not to install custom fonts, Gitwig includes a built-in fallback:

1. Open the settings popup in the app by pressing s.
2. Focus the Compatibility Mode option and toggle it to true.
3. Alternatively, add compatibility_mode = true in your config.toml.

When Compatibility Mode is active, Gitwig will automatically substitute all Nerd Font glyphs and complex emojis with standard ASCII and basic terminal symbols to ensure a clean, stable layout in any standard monospaced font.

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🚀 Installation & Running

Installation

You can install Gitwig directly from crates.io:

cargo install gitwig

Building from Source

Alternatively, you can clone the repository and build it from source:

git clone https://github.com/tareqmy/gitwig.git
cd gitwig
cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be located at target/release/gitwig. You can copy it to a directory in your $PATH or run it directly.

Running

# Run with default config resolution
gitwig

# Run with an explicit config path
gitwig path/to/config.toml