🌿 GitSync - Keep it up!

An Interactive TUI tool for managing multiple git branches with ease. It transforms the tedious task of updating multiple branches into a single click.

The Problem It Solves

When working with multiple feature branches, you often need to:

• Keep them all up-to-date with the main base branch
• Rebase them regularly to avoid conflicts
• Remember what each branch is for
• See which branches are behind

Doing this manually for each branch is tedious and error-prone. GitSync provides a visual and interactive solution to streamline this workflow.

✨ Core Features

🔍 Smart Auto-Detection

• Base Branch Detection - Automatically finds your main branch (main, master, dev-integration, develop).
• Remote Detection - Discovers upstream and origin remotes without configuration.
• Branch Discovery - Scans and lists all local branches (excluding the base branch).
• Zero Config - Works out of the box for standard git workflows.

📊 Rich Branch Information

• Ahead/Behind Counts - Shows how many commits each branch is ahead or behind the base.
• Last Commit Time - Displays when each branch was last updated (e.g., "2 days ago").
• Status Indicators - Visual dots showing branch state:
  • 🟢 Green: Up to date with base.
  • 🟡 Yellow: Behind base branch.
  • 🔴 Red: Has conflicts.
• Custom Descriptions - Add notes to remember what each branch is for.

🎯 Interactive Selection

• Keyboard Navigation - Use arrow keys (↑/↓) or vim-style (j/k).
• Toggle Selection - Use the spacebar to select/deselect individual branches.
• Bulk Operations:
  • Press a to select all branches.
  • Press n to deselect all branches.
• Visual Feedback - Selected branches show checkboxes (☑).

📝 Branch Tagging System

• Add Descriptions - Press t to tag any branch with a description.
• Persistent Storage - Tags are stored in your local git config and persist across sessions.
• Easy Editing - A simple text input interface for adding and editing tags.

🔄 Smart Update Process

1. Fetch Upstream - Downloads the latest changes from your upstream remote.
2. Update Base Branch - Resets your local base branch to match upstream.
3. Rebase Branches - Rebases each selected branch onto the updated base.
4. Push to Origin - Force-pushes (with lease) the rebased branches to your origin.
5. Conflict Handling - Gracefully skips branches with conflicts and reports them at the end.

🛡️ Safe Operations

• Force-with-Lease - Uses --force-with-lease for safer force pushing.
• Conflict Detection - Detects and skips conflicting branches, never leaving the repository in a broken state.
• Uncommitted Changes Check - Warns you if you have uncommitted work before starting.

I.E 👇

1. Fetches the latest base branch from upstream.
2. Updates your local base branch to match it.
3. Pushes this updated base branch to your origin remote (your fork).
4. Rebases your local feature branches onto this new base branch.
5. Pushes those updated feature branches to origin.

🚀 Installation

Using go install

You can install gitsync with a single command. Replace user/repo with the actual repository path.

go install github.com/hariharen9/gitsync@latest

From Source

Alternatively, you can build from source.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/hariharen9/gitsync.git
   cd gitsync

2. Install it globally:

   ./scripts/install.sh

   Install.sh will take care of building and installing the binary to /usr/local/bin

3. Build the binary for all platforms:

   ./scripts/build.sh all

   Build.sh will take care of building the binary for all supported platforms ( macOS, Linux, Windows )

📖 Getting Started: 5-Minute Tutorial

1. Navigate to your git repository:

   cd /path/to/your/repo

2. Run GitSync:

   gitsync

   You'll see a list of all your local branches.

3. Browse and Select:

   • Use the arrow keys (↑/↓) to navigate.
   • Press the spacebar to select one or more branches.
   • Press a to select all branches.

4. Tag a Branch (Optional):

   • Navigate to a branch and press t.
   • Type a description (e.g., "Feature: new payment gateway") and press Enter. This helps you remember the purpose of the branch.

5. Update:

   • Press Enter to start the update process.
   • GitSync will fetch, update your base branch, and rebase all selected branches.

6. Review the Summary:

   • After the process completes, a summary will show which branches were updated successfully and which failed (e.g., due to conflicts).

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Navigate up/down
j / k	Navigate (vim-style)
space	Toggle selection
a	Select all branches
n	Deselect all branches
t	Tag/describe branch
h	Help menu
enter	Start update process
y	Confirm (in manual mode)
n	Cancel (in manual mode)
esc	Cancel tagging
q	Quit application
ctrl+c	Force quit

⚙️ Configuration (Optional)

For most standard workflows, no configuration is needed. However, you can customize GitSync's behavior by creating a .gitsync.yaml file in your repository's root directory.

# .gitsync.yaml

# Override the auto-detected base branch
base_branch: dev-integration

# Specify non-standard remote names
upstream_remote: upstream
origin_remote: fork

# Configure patterns to exclude certain branches from the list
exclude_patterns:
  - "release/"
  - "hotfix/"
  - "archive/"
  - "and so on...."

🎛️ Manual Mode

If you prefer more control or want to see what commands are being run, use the manual mode flag:

gitsync -m
# or
gitsync --manual

In manual mode, GitSync will show you exactly what will happen and ask for your confirmation before starting the update process.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Note

This is built for my needs, I have to often rebase a lot of branches, so this tool is a lifesave for me. If you find it useful for you as well, please consider giving it a star on GitHub ⭐️.