GitChrono
A fast, native Git client — 100% Rust, GPU-rendered with
gpui. Website and downloads: gitchrono.com.
[!WARNING]
GitChrono is in alpha. Use at your own risk. Expect bugs and breaking changes.
It runs real git commands (reset, rebase, discard, force-push) on your repositories,
so keep backups or a pushed remote of anything you can't afford to lose.
cargo run -p gitchrono-app -- /path/to/repo # or open one from the welcome screen
Requires git 2.40+ on PATH (Windows builds include MinGit as a fallback; without git the app shows how to install it).
Architecture
crates/
gitchrono-core/ git engine — reads via gitoxide, writes via the git CLI
gitchrono-graph/ pure commit-graph lane layout (unit tested)
gitchrono-app/ gpui desktop app (gpui-kit + gpui-component)
Hybrid engine. History walk (--topo-order), refs and commit trees come from
gitoxide — that's what keeps 85k-commit repos
fast. Everything that mutates the repo (commit, push, rebase, stash, …) and porcelain-exact
reads (status, patches) shell out to git, so hooks, credential helpers, SSH config and
signing behave exactly like the terminal. As gix grows (push/rebase are still missing upstream)
more can move in-process.
Benchmark: cargo run --release -p gitchrono-core --example snapshot -- <repo>
(git.git: 85,767 commits loaded in ~2.8s, graph layout ~80ms, Apple Silicon).
Debug hooks. GITCHRONO_SETTINGS=1 opens the settings page on launch; GITCHRONO_FOLDERS=1 starts file lists in folder view. GITCHRONO_SELECT=<row>[:diff] selects a row (and opens its first diff)
after the first load and GITCHRONO_TERMINAL=<command> runs a command in the terminal — used by scripts/screenshots.sh.
Releases
Builds run on GitHub Actions:
- CI (
.github/workflows/ci.yml) — tests + app build on macOS, Linux and Windows for every push/PR.
- Release (
.github/workflows/release.yml) — on a v* tag, builds and publishes a GitHub Release:
macOS universal .dmg, Windows x64 .zip, Linux x64/arm64 .tar.gz, plus SHA256SUMS.txt.
The version comes from the tag; -suffix tags are marked pre-release. Run it manually
(workflow_dispatch) or push a release/** branch to get -dev.N artifacts without publishing.
- Screenshots (
.github/workflows/screenshots.yml) — on a v* tag (or manually), takes the
screenshots above on macOS with scripts/screenshots.sh and commits them to docs/screenshots/
when they changed. Run the script locally to preview them (it needs Screen Recording permission).
scripts/release.sh 0.2.0 --push # bump Cargo version, commit, tag v0.2.0, push → release
macOS builds are ad-hoc signed; Gatekeeper will warn until Developer ID signing +
notarization secrets are added. Windows builds are unsigned.
Licensing (open-core)
The crates in this repository are Apache-2.0. Paid Pro features (hosted integrations,
team features, AI) will live in a separate crate outside this repo.
See docs/roadmap.md for the roadmap.
