GitY: A Fast, Native Git Repository Browser for Linux
Over the last two months I built my first desktop application: GitY. It’s a simple read-only Git browser for searching and viewing a repositories commit history. Useful for browsing a Git repository in a desktop app without wrestling with a heavyweight IDE. It’s a simple, fast, and built for developers who prefer native Linux tools—and it excels at two things in particular: search and speed. For reasonably sized repositories most operations will be near instant. Don’t wait for slow tools when better options exist!
Features
Branch and tag browser — Collapsible panels let you browse branches and tags with natural sorting and last-commit timestamps (eg: 1mo means the last commit on that branch or tag was 1 month ago). You can see at a glance which branches are active and when they were last updated.
Commit list — Each commit shows its message, author, commit SHA, and date. Tag chips and upstream branch indicators help you orient yourself quickly in large histories. List supports infinite scroll to keep memory low and responsiveness high.
Commit diffs — View syntax-highlighted diffs for any commit, so code changes are easy to read and understand. When a diff has a lot of files changed it still loads quickly by only showing the first 10 files changed by default. All files can be opened by clicking on ‘Expand all’.
Search — Full-text search across all commit messages, plus SHA prefix search. Find commits by what they say or by their hash, without waiting. For large repositories, it uses multiple worker threads to search through commits faster.
Keyboard Shortcuts — All operations can be completed with keyboard shortcuts for speed.
For some technical details, it’s built with Rust, GTK4, and libadwaita; it gives you a clean, native interface for exploring branches, tags, commits, and diffs. GitY is open source and hosted on GitHub.
Who is it for?
GitY is built for developers who:
- Prefer lightweight, native Linux applications over web-based or Electron tools
- Want to browse Git history without leaving the desktop
- Use the terminal for most Git operations but want a visual browser for exploration
- Value speed and responsiveness in their tools
Try it
GitY is distributed as a Flatpak on Flathub.