Why FoldGit
More and more code is written by AI agents, and reviewing changes rarely needs an IDE anymore. Production code still deserves a human look: which files changed, which lines moved, whether anything went out of bounds.
FoldGit is a small, quiet window for exactly that. It keeps all your repositories at hand, shows changes clearly, and follows the look and feel of macOS. Existing Git clients rarely manage to be beautiful, simple and lightweight at once, and similar projects had drifted too far in interaction and internals to adjust from within, so FoldGit started fresh.
Features
- Fold repositories, not folders. Every repository stays in the sidebar. Import a folder and its repositories become a group, or create groups that gather repositories from anywhere. Groups never move anything on disk. Inactive repositories fold one level deeper.
- Worktrees, first-class. Linked worktrees are discovered automatically and appear under their repository with the branch name. Create, move, lock, remove and prune them, and use Finish Worktree to merge into a target branch and clean up. Conflicts are resolved in native sheets.
- Review and commit. Commit graph for the current branch or all commits, unified and side-by-side diffs (switching automatically with the window width), hunk staging, amend, revert, and commit message templates.
- Branches, tags and comparison. Switch, merge, rename and delete branches, manage tags, and compare any two branches or tags.
- Native menus and shortcuts. Open recent repositories, run repository and commit actions, navigate to HEAD, and control diff views from the menu bar. Find the shortcut reference under Help.
- Fast search. Filter history by author, email or message as you type. Search runs in the background, reuses its index, pages results and cancels stale queries. It works with CJK input methods.
- Sidebar that scales. Filter by folder, repository or custom display name. Sort by name, recently opened, modified or added, or keep a manual order.
- Everyday extras. Push and pull, stash, per-repository Auto Fetch (download only, never merge), Open in your editor or terminal, light and dark appearances, and eight interface languages.
- Native and small. Written in SwiftUI and AppKit, no Electron. The installer is about 4 MB.
Install
Requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later, and Git. If Git is missing, run xcode-select --install.
Homebrew
With Homebrew installed:
brew install --cask dufu1991/tap/foldgit
To update, run brew update followed by brew upgrade --cask dufu1991/tap/foldgit.
Download the DMG
- Download the latest
FoldGit-macOS-arm64.dmg from Releases.
- Open the DMG and drag FoldGit into Applications.
First launch
Releases that are not notarized by Apple carry this command in their release notes. If macOS says FoldGit is damaged or cannot be verified, run it once, then open FoldGit again:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/FoldGit.app
User guide
See the user guide on foldgit.com.
Windows
The repository also contains a Windows client built with C#, WinUI 3 and .NET 10 (Windows 11 24H2 or later, x64 and ARM64). It is only a minimal implementation, and the author has no Windows machine to polish it on. Contributions are very welcome: see the Windows guide and the feature parity checklist.
Download the Windows x64 or ARM64 EXE from Releases, then open it to install. Required runtimes are included.
Support FoldGit
FoldGit is independently developed and maintained by dufu. If it makes reviewing code and managing repositories easier for you, a donation helps support ongoing development and maintenance. Thank you for your support!
You can also scan a QR code with WeChat or Alipay. Click an image to view it at full size.
Development
Repository layout
Package.swift Shared Swift package entry
Package.resolved Shared dependency lock
Shared/
Sources/FoldGitCore/ Platform-independent Git and domain core
Resources/Branding/ Shared icon sources, vector layers and images
Resources/FileIcons/ Shared file type icons and matching rules
Resources/Localization/ Source strings for eight languages
Resources/Licenses/ Project and third-party licenses
Fixtures/ Cross-language behavior samples
Testing/ Reusable temporary-repository test helpers
Tests/FoldGitCoreTests/ Shared core tests
Platforms/
macOS/ Native macOS app and all of its private files
Sources/ SwiftUI, AppKit, state and system services
Resources/ Localizations and Apple asset catalogs
Configuration/ App identity, signing and export settings
Tests/ macOS UI and integration tests
Screenshots/ macOS app screenshots
FoldGit.xcodeproj/ Xcode project
project.yml XcodeGen spec
Windows/ WinUI 3 app, C# core, system adapters and installer packaging
Scripts/ Resource generation, validation and packaging tools
website/ Landing page and user guide (static)
.github/ Build workflows for the core and each platform
docs/ Architecture, migration and release notes
The shared module does not depend on AppKit, SwiftUI or macOS preferences. The macOS app consumes it as a local Swift package instead of compiling shared sources into the app target.
Shared core
Use Swift 6.2 or later with Git on PATH. From the repository root:
swift test
python3 Scripts/check-platform-boundaries.py
python3 Scripts/validate-windows.py # Windows inputs that can be checked without the XAML compiler
CI validates the shared core, the Windows core and the macOS app separately.
macOS app
Apple Silicon only, macOS 26 minimum. Verified with Xcode 27.1 and Swift 6.4. Open Platforms/macOS/FoldGit.xcodeproj.
Local Debug builds and tests use a fixed Apple Development certificate, so macOS keeps recognizing existing file access permissions across rebuilds. Copy Platforms/macOS/Configuration/LocalSigning.xcconfig.example to LocalSigning.xcconfig in the same folder and fill in your team ID (the OU field of the certificate subject). The file is git-ignored. You can set CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY to the certificate's SHA-1 fingerprint to pin a specific certificate. Keep the same bundle ID and app path while developing, and do not pass CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO; switching signing for the first time may ask for permission once. CI builds that never launch the app may still disable signing.
xcodebuild test -project Platforms/macOS/FoldGit.xcodeproj -scheme FoldGit \
-configuration Debug -destination 'platform=macOS'
python3 Scripts/generate-resources.py --check
python3 Scripts/validate-localizations.py
Regenerate the Xcode project with XcodeGen 2.45 or later:
xcodegen generate --spec Platforms/macOS/project.yml
Icons and local packaging
Shared brand assets live in Shared/Resources/Branding. macOS uses the layered icon directly; other platforms use the PNG and SVG layers next to it.
Build a local Apple Silicon (arm64) Release package:
Scripts/package-macos.sh
Output goes to dist/macos: FoldGit.app, a DMG and ZIP named macOS-arm64, and SHA-256 checksums. The local script uses ad hoc signing and does not notarize.
Releases
Set the version with python3 Scripts/version.py set <version> and push to main; the release workflow publishes the macOS DMG and Windows EXE installers. The Homebrew tap automatically checks for new releases every 6 hours and updates the cask using its own GITHUB_TOKEN, without a personal access token. GitHub scheduling may delay a run. Versioning, Homebrew synchronization and optional signing secrets are described in the release guide.
Website
website/ is the static landing page and user guide published at foldgit.com, with no build step. See website/README.md for local preview and how screenshots are captured from demo repositories.
More reading: Architecture, Migration notes, Localization guide, File icons, Windows parity checklist, Release guide. Notes under docs/ are written in Chinese.
License
FoldGit is an open source project independently maintained by dufu, released under the MIT License. Copyright of the project's own code belongs to dufu.
Third-party code, Swift Subprocess, Swift System and Material Icon Theme keep their own copyright and license notices. The full text is in Shared/Resources/Licenses/LICENSE.txt, ships with the macOS app, and can be viewed under Open Source Licenses in Settings.
