Suture

Version control that understands your files.

Git is to text files what Suture is to Word docs, spreadsheets, and video timelines.

  Before (Git)                              After (Suture)
  ─────────────────────                     ─────────────────────
  Two people edit config.json:              Same scenario:
  one changes "host", the other "port".     Suture merges both keys — zero conflicts.

  $ git merge staging                       $ suture merge staging
  CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict        Clean merge. 2 patches applied.
  in config.json
  <<<<<<< HEAD
    "host": "prod",
    "port": 8080
  =======
    "host": "staging"
    "port": 3000
  >>>>>>> staging

Suture uses semantic drivers to merge JSON, YAML, TOML, CSV, XML, Markdown, HTML, SVG, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, SQL, PDF, images, iCalendar, RSS/Atom feeds, and video timelines at the structural level — not the line level. Two edits to different JSON keys, different DOCX paragraphs, or different spreadsheet cells never conflict.

Quick Start

# Install (builds in ~2 minutes)
cargo install suture-cli

# Or download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases
# https://github.com/WyattAu/suture/releases

# Git merge driver (install once, works with any repo)
npm install -g suture-merge-driver    # Node.js
pip install suture-merge-driver       # Python

suture init
suture config user.name "Your Name"

echo '{"host": "localhost", "port": 3000}' > config.json
suture add . && suture commit "base config"

suture branch staging && suture checkout staging
echo '{"host": "staging", "port": 3000}' > config.json
suture add . && suture commit "point to staging"

suture checkout main
echo '{"host": "localhost", "port": 8080}' > config.json
suture add . && suture commit "change port"

suture merge staging
# {"host": "staging", "port": 8080}  ← both changes, no conflict

Who Is This For?

What Makes Suture Different

Semantic merge for 20+ formats:

Files without a driver fall back to line-based merge, same as Git.

50+ CLI commands: init, add, commit, branch, merge, rebase, cherry-pick, push, pull, clone, tag, blame, stash, worktree, remote, log, diff, show, status, grep, archive, export, sync, verify, describe, bisect, apply, clean, doctor, fsck, gc, notes, reflog, completions, and more.

Google Drive replacement: suture sync auto-commits, pulls, and pushes — one command replaces cloud folder sync with full version history.

Audit & compliance: suture log --audit exports structured audit trails (JSON/CSV/text). suture diff --classification detects NATO/US/UK/AU security marking changes. Ed25519 commit signing with suture verify.

Client delivery: suture export creates clean snapshots for handoff. suture diff --summary produces human-readable change reports.

Mount as a filesystem: FUSE and WebDAV mounts let any editor save directly into a Suture repo — every save creates a patch.

Self-hosted collaboration: Suture Hub provides a web UI, auth, push/pull, mirrors, and search.

Install

Prebuilt binaries (recommended)

Download from GitHub Releases — Linux x86_64, macOS x86_64/aarch64, Windows x86_64.

From source

git clone https://github.com/WyattAu/suture.git
cd suture && cargo build --release --bin suture
# Binary at target/release/suture

Package managers

cargo install suture-cli          # crates.io
brew install wyattau/tap/suture   # macOS / Linux
paru -S suture-git                # Arch Linux (AUR)

Key Commands

suture init                        # Initialize a repository
suture add . && suture commit "msg" # Stage and commit
suture branch feature && suture checkout feature  # Branching
suture merge feature               # Semantic merge
suture push origin main            # Push to remote
suture pull                        # Pull from remote
suture sync                        # Auto-commit + pull + push
suture log --graph                 # Visual commit history
suture diff --summary              # Human-readable change summary
suture log --audit                 # Structured audit trail
suture diff --classification        # Classification marking changes
suture verify HEAD                 # Verify commit signature
suture stash push -m "WIP"         # Stash work in progress
suture export ./delivery           # Clean snapshot for client
suture doctor --fix                # Auto-remediate common issues

Use With Git

Suture works as a Git merge driver — add semantic merging to your existing Git repos:

git config merge.suture.name "suture"
git config merge.suture.driver "suture merge-file --driver %s %O %A %B -o %A"

Learn More

• Quick Start Guide — 60-second getting started
• Why Suture? — the problem with binary version control
• Suture vs. Git — honest comparison
• Semantic merge explained — how it works under the hood
• Full CLI reference
• Comparison with other VCS

Stats

• 37 crates in the workspace
• 17 semantic drivers for structured file formats
• 1,400+ tests across the workspace
• 50+ CLI commands
• v5.0.1 — unified version across all crates

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.