GitPulse

A VS Code-inspired desktop Git GUI built with Tauri v2, React, and Rust.

GitPulse aims to give you a fast, native-feeling Git client with the keybindings and visual language you already know from VS Code, plus features the VS Code source-control panel doesn't include — a virtualized commit graph for huge histories, interactive rebase, blame, file history, worktrees, an inline merge editor, and optional AI-generated commit messages (including a fully local, free path via Ollama).

Table of contents

• Install
• First-time setup
• Using GitPulse
• AI commit messages
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Where your data lives
• Troubleshooting
• Building from source
• License

Install

All bundles are published on the Releases page.

Linux

Pick the format that matches your distro. All three contain the same app.

Format	Install command
.deb (Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Mint)	sudo apt install ./GitPulse_<version>_amd64.deb
.rpm (Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE)	sudo dnf install ./GitPulse-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
.AppImage (any distro, no install)	chmod +x GitPulse_<version>_amd64.AppImage && ./GitPulse_<version>_amd64.AppImage

Runtime dependencies (the .deb/.rpm declare these; .AppImage needs them present on the system):

• WebKitGTK 4.1 (libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 on Debian/Ubuntu, webkit2gtk4.1 on Fedora)
• GTK 3 (libgtk-3-0 / gtk3)
• AyatanaAppIndicator 3 (libayatana-appindicator3-1 / libayatana-appindicator-gtk3)
• git on PATH

macOS

Download the .dmg matching your CPU (GitPulse_<version>_x64.dmg for Intel, GitPulse_<version>_aarch64.dmg for Apple Silicon), open it, and drag GitPulse to Applications.

The bundles are not code-signed, so on first launch macOS will refuse to open the app. Work around it once:

1. Right-click GitPulse.app in Applications → Open.
2. In the dialog, click Open again.
3. If Gatekeeper still blocks it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about GitPulse being blocked, and click Open Anyway.

After that, future launches work normally.

Windows

Download GitPulse_<version>_x64-setup.exe and run it.

SmartScreen will warn that the publisher is unverified (the installer isn't signed). To proceed:

1. Click More info in the SmartScreen dialog.
2. Click Run anyway.

You'll also need Git installed and on PATH (git-scm.com).

First-time setup

1. Open a repository. Use the welcome screen's Open Folder button or drag a folder onto the window. You can also open multiple repos at once — they'll appear as separate sections in the source control sidebar.
2. Set a commit identity (optional). Go to Settings → Commit Identities and add one. You can configure a default identity and override it per repo. If you skip this, GitPulse uses whatever your git config already has.
3. Configure AI commit messages (optional). See AI commit messages below — there's a free local option via Ollama if you don't want to use a paid API.
4. Set auto-fetch behaviour (optional). Settings → Auto Fetch lets you choose how often GitPulse polls remotes in the background.

Open Settings any time from the gear icon in the bottom-left of the sidebar.

Using GitPulse

Source control

The sidebar splits changes into three buckets:

• Merge Changes — files with unresolved conflicts (only shown during a merge). Clicking one opens the inline merge editor; see Resolving conflicts.
• Staged Changes — what will be committed when you hit Commit.
• Changes — modified and untracked files. Untracked directories show as a single folder row.

Hover any row for stage/unstage/discard buttons. Right-click for the full context menu (open in external editor, copy path, view history, blame, etc.).

The diff panel supports split and inline modes, whitespace toggles, word-level highlighting, binary previews, and per-hunk or per-selection stage/unstage/discard from the gutter.

Committing

Type a message in the box at the top of the source control panel and press Ctrl+Enter (or click Commit). Some useful behaviours:

• Empty staging area — GitPulse offers to stage everything and commit (configurable in Settings → Git → Stage All On Commit).
• Amend — click the dropdown next to Commit and choose Amend. Pushing an amended commit that's already on a remote will prompt for force-push.
• Undo last commit — Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Commit ▸ Undo). The staged state is restored.
• Sign commits — toggle in Settings → Git.

Branches

• Ctrl+Shift+B — branch picker (search, checkout, delete, rename).
• Ctrl+Shift+N — create branch from the current HEAD.
• The status bar shows the current branch, upstream, and ahead/behind counts. Clicking it opens the branch picker.
• Publish a branch from the branch picker to set its upstream and push for the first time.

Commit graph

Open the Graph view from the activity bar (left rail). It's virtualized, so it stays smooth on repos with hundreds of thousands of commits. From a commit row you can:

• View the diff and changed files
• Cherry-pick, revert, reset (soft/mixed/hard)
• Start an interactive rebase
• Recover from the reflog
• Pick a parent when viewing merge commits

Filter by author, branch, tag, or message using the toolbar.

Interactive rebase

From a commit in the graph choose Rebase ▸ Interactive. Reorder, squash, fixup, edit, drop, or reword commits with drag-and-drop, then Start Rebase. GitPulse handles conflicts inline via the merge editor (see Resolving conflicts) and you can abort at any point from the rebase status banner.

Blame and file history

Right-click any file in the source control or explorer panel → Open Blame or Show File History. Both work on the full history of the file (including across renames).

Stash, worktrees, remotes, tags

All accessible from the activity bar. Stash supports filtering by name and message; worktrees can be created, switched, and pruned without leaving the app. The File History panel pairs naturally with worktrees: pick a file, scroll its commits, and the diff for that specific file renders below — drag the sash between the commit list and the diff to resize.

Resolving conflicts

When a merge or pull leaves conflicts, the conflicted files appear in the Merge Changes section. Click one to open the merge editor, which shows:

• Conflict quick fixes — buttons to accept current, accept incoming, or accept both (in either order) for all conflicts in the file.
• A three-pane view (current / result / incoming) where you can edit and stage individual hunks.

Mark a file as resolved by staging it. Once everything is staged, the commit button changes to Continue Merge.

AI commit messages

GitPulse can generate a commit message from your staged diff. Configure providers in Settings → AI Commit Messages.

Provider	API key needed?	Where to get one
Ollama (local, free)	No	Install Ollama, then ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:1.5b (or another model)
OpenAI	Yes	platform.openai.com/api-keys
Anthropic	Yes	console.anthropic.com
DeepSeek	Yes	platform.deepseek.com
OpenAI-compatible	Yes	Any service that speaks the OpenAI chat-completions API (Groq, Together, OpenRouter, LM Studio, vLLM, etc.)

Recommended: Ollama (free, local, private)

Ollama runs an LLM on your machine — no API key, no network calls, your code stays local.

1. Install Ollama from ollama.com.
2. Pull a small coder model:

   ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:1.5b   # ~1 GB, runs on any laptop
   # or, if you have 8+ GB RAM free:
   ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b     # noticeably better wording

3. In GitPulse → Settings → AI Commit Messages, select Ollama, leave the base URL at http://localhost:11434, set the model to the one you pulled, and click Test connection.

Once configured, the sparkle button next to the commit message box generates a draft from your staged diff. You can re-roll or edit before committing.

Using a hosted provider

For OpenAI/Anthropic/DeepSeek/OpenAI-compatible, paste your API key into the provider's config card. The key is stored locally (see Where your data lives) and is never sent anywhere except to that provider's API. Click the eye icon next to the key field if you want to verify what you pasted.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+G	Focus Source Control
Ctrl+Enter	Commit from the message box
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Commit all (stages everything first)
Ctrl+Shift+.	Stage selected file
Ctrl+Shift+,	Unstage selected file
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo last commit
Ctrl+Shift+B	Open branch picker
Ctrl+Shift+N	Create branch
Ctrl+Shift+P	Push (add Alt for force-push)
Ctrl+Shift+L	Pull
Ctrl+Shift+F	Fetch
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓	Navigate hunks in the diff
Ctrl+K Ctrl+S	Open this shortcut reference inside the app

On macOS, Cmd replaces Ctrl.

Where your data lives

GitPulse stores everything locally. There is no telemetry, no analytics, no usage tracking, and no remote configuration sync.

What	Where
Settings (theme, auto-fetch, identities, etc.)	settings.json in the app data dir
AI API keys	secrets.json in the app data dir
Window state	Managed by the OS via tauri-plugin-window-state

The app data dir resolves to:

OS	Path
Linux	~/.local/share/com.gitpulse.app/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/com.gitpulse.app/
Windows	%APPDATA%\com.gitpulse.app\

To reset GitPulse to a clean slate, quit the app and delete that directory.

Troubleshooting

"git was not found on PATH" or commands silently fail. GitPulse shells out to system Git for everything. Install Git (git-scm.com) and make sure git --version works in a fresh terminal before relaunching.

Linux: the window is blank or the app fails to start. Missing WebKitGTK 4.1. Install the runtime packages listed in the Linux install section.

macOS: "GitPulse is damaged and can't be opened". Gatekeeper quarantine flag — the bundle isn't signed yet. Either follow the Open Anyway workaround, or run once from Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/GitPulse.app

Windows: SmartScreen blocks the installer. Click More info → Run anyway. The installer isn't signed yet.

AI provider's "Test connection" fails.

• Ollama: check that ollama serve is running (curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags should return JSON).
• OpenAI / Anthropic / DeepSeek: re-paste the key and use the eye icon to confirm there are no stray spaces or duplicated characters. Make sure your account has billing/credits enabled.

Auto-fetch isn't running. Check Settings → Auto Fetch — both the toggle and the interval must be set. If you're on a metered connection or working offline, leaving it disabled is fine.

Merge conflict file won't open. Fixed in v0.2.1. If you're on an older version, update to the latest release.

Building from source

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (see .nvmrc; currently v26.1.0) — nvm use to match
• npm
• Rust toolchain (rustup)
• Tauri's system prerequisites for your OS
• Git on PATH

git clone https://github.com/hassan-mehedi/gitpulse.git
cd gitpulse
nvm use
npm install
npm run tauri dev      # launches the app with hot reload

Other commands:

npm run build                                       # frontend production build
npm run tauri build                                 # full desktop bundle
npm test                                            # vitest suite
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml     # Rust unit tests
npx tsc --noEmit                                    # frontend type check

Project layout

• src/ — React frontend (components, Zustand stores, hooks, types, styles)
• src-tauri/ — Rust backend (Tauri commands, Git runners, parsers, workspace state)
• vite.config.ts, tsconfig*.json — frontend build config
• src-tauri/Cargo.toml, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json — backend and shell config

Performance smoke test

Performance regressions surface mainly on large histories. Before releasing, point GitPulse at a deep repo (the Linux kernel works well) and check:

• the commit graph scrolls smoothly past 100k commits and lanes stay aligned
• blame on kernel/sched/core.c returns in a few seconds and the gutter stays responsive
• file history on long-lived files paginates without blocking
• a full status pass on a dirty working tree returns under a second
• searching/filtering the graph by author or ref doesn't freeze the UI

License

MIT © hassan-mehedi