Nibtree

A native desktop Git client with a 3-way merge tool, multi-folder workspaces, tabs, blame and history, and a place to run and watch AI coding agents side by side. Built with Rust (Tauri 2) and a small Svelte 5 UI running in the system web view, so it starts fast and stays light on memory.

Download the latest release (macOS for Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows 10 and 11) · User guide and developer docs · Report a bug or request a feature

Screenshots

Merge tool: Yours, Result and Theirs with per-change arrows	Conflicts in the editor: Accept Current, Incoming or Both
Log: branch graph, tags and commit details	Commit tabs: a commit's diff in the whole editor area
Changes: grouped by repository, stage and commit	Blame: who changed each line, click to see the commit
Workspaces: many folders and repositories in one window	Light and dark themes, following the system by default
AI agents: run agents per worktree and see who is working or needs you	AI usage: each agent's limits and the time left until they reset

Every feature has its own page with screenshots in the wiki.

Features

• Workspaces: open any folder, whether it is one repository, many (nested ones included) or no git at all (initialize one from the app). Add more folders to the same window, save the set to a .nibtree-workspace file, or open a .code-workspace file. Repositories you clone or create inside an open folder show up on their own, and a progress card shows while a big folder opens.
• 3-way merge tool: Yours | Result | Theirs panes with connectors, per-change apply and ignore buttons, "apply both" for conflicts, one-click Apply non-conflicting, word-level highlights, synchronized scrolling, F7 navigation, full undo and an ignore-whitespace mode.
• Conflicts made easy: a Conflicts dialog to take Yours or Theirs for whole files (binary and deleted files too), inline Accept Current / Incoming / Both actions in the editor, and Continue, Abort or Skip for merge, rebase, cherry-pick and revert.
• Native menu bar with the Nibtree app menu (macOS), File, Edit, View, Code, Git, Window and Help menus, and Help > Keyboard Shortcuts, an in-app list of every shortcut.
• Git menu: Commit, Push and Pull dialogs, Update Project, Merge and Rebase dialogs with their options, Interactive Rebase, Reset HEAD, Branches, tags, patches, Manage Remotes, Clone, and Current File history, blame and compare views.
• Changes: staged and unstaged files grouped by repository, each with a branch picker, Sync Changes (or Publish Branch for a new branch) and a ... menu of its own actions. Side-by-side diffs (resizable), stage or unstage whole files or single hunks, discard, commit, amend, Commit & Push, Commit & Sync and Commit (Amend), commit options (sign off, author, GPG, skip hooks) and Add to .gitignore.
• Shelf, worktrees, submodules and Git LFS from the Git menu, plus a Git Console that shows every git command the app runs (off by default).
• GitHub: sign in with a token kept in the system keychain or with the GitHub CLI, then Share Project on GitHub, Sync Fork, Create Gist, and open its pull request pages on GitHub.
• Editor and tabs: preview tabs (shown in italics until you edit or pin them), breadcrumbs, change markers in the gutter and on the scrollbar, a find and replace bar, Code menu commands, Render whitespace, line spacing, syntax highlighting, font ligatures and zoom with Ctrl or Cmd + mouse wheel.
• Search Everywhere: double Shift for files, classes, symbols and text in every folder, plus Replace in Files.
• Markdown editor with a live preview, mermaid diagrams, a formatting toolbar and a Rich Editor view you can type in.
• Run AI agents: the AI panel (the robot button in the right activity bar) lists every workspace folder and repository with its worktrees. Start Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Cursor CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Aider, Amp or Qwen Code (whichever are installed) in its own tab, with an optional first prompt. You choose once whether agents ask before acting or work on their own, and each agent's command, flags and arguments can be changed in Settings, so a renamed command needs no app update.
• Monitor agents: each agent shows whether it is working, needs you or is done, what it is working on and since when; a count shows how many need you, and an agent that finishes out of sight marks its tab. The status bar shows each agent's usage limits with the time left until they reset, the memory details list what every agent and terminal uses, and Keep computer awake can stop the screen from sleeping or locking while agents work.
• Parallel tasks: New Task turns a task name into its own branch and worktree, ready to run (.env files copied, node_modules linked), and can race up to five agents on the same task in separate worktrees. Finish Task closes the agents and removes the worktree and its branch, asking before any work is lost.
• Integrated terminal with several shells, terminals in editor tabs, and a Scripts tool window that runs npm, Composer, Make, Deno and just scripts with the right Node version, in a Run tab.
• Blame: inline blame for the current line and a blame gutter; click it to open that commit in the Log on the same line.
• Log: paged history with a branch graph, commit details and per-file diffs. Double-click a commit (or use Open in Tab) to read it full size in its own tab. Cherry-pick, revert, reset and checkout from the right-click menu.
• Branches, tags, remotes and stashes: checkout, create, rename, delete, merge and rebase from the sidebar or the Branches popup; fetch, pull and push with live progress; stash, apply, pop, drop and clear.
• Back and Forward across files, diffs and commits, like a browser.
• 37 color themes, one for light and one for dark mode, following the system by default.
• Settings saved in ~/.nibtree, header buttons that show or hide the left and right activity bars, a status bar with the app's memory use (plus an optional memory log for debugging), and update checks with a stable and a beta channel.
• MCP server and command line tool (off by default, local only) so AI tools such as Claude Code can use the app.
• Works as git mergetool (see below).

Platforms

Nibtree runs on macOS and Windows with the same features; Linux is planned. Each platform is built and tested on every pull request. Where they differ:

	macOS	Windows	Linux
Download	Universal .dmg (Apple Silicon and Intel)	-setup.exe for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, installs for your account without admin rights	Planned
First launch	Not signed yet: right-click the app, Open	Not signed yet: SmartScreen, More info, Run anyway
Web view	WebKit (WKWebView)	Microsoft Edge WebView2 (the installer adds it if missing)
Menu bar	Top of the screen, with a Nibtree menu	Inside the window; Settings and Exit in File, About in Help
Shortcuts	Cmd and Option	Ctrl and Alt; Navigation Bar is Alt+Home, tabs switch with Ctrl+PageDown and Ctrl+PageUp
Git menu keys (Commit, Update Project, Show Log)	Cmd+K, Cmd+T, Cmd+9	None: Ctrl+K and Ctrl+T belong to the shell
Terminal shells	Your login shell and those in /etc/shells	PowerShell 7, Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt and Git Bash
Terminal copy and paste	Cmd+C, Cmd+V	Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+Shift+V
Tools found on PATH	Read from your login shell (~/.zprofile)	The PATH Windows gives the app
Git sign-in	Your git setup (macOS keychain, SSH agent)	Your git setup (Git Credential Manager, SSH agent)
GitHub token	Keychain	Credential Manager
Deleted files	Trash	Recycle Bin
Settings folder	~/.nibtree	C:\Users\<you>\.nibtree
Command line tool	nibtree in the app, linked into ~/.local/bin	nibtree-cli.exe next to the app, nibtree.cmd in WindowsApps
Memory readout	Activity Monitor's Memory (physical footprint)	Task Manager's Memory (private working set)
Clear Cache	Yes	Not yet (macOS only for now)
Option as Meta in the terminal, Enter Full Screen	Yes	No
PDF preview	Safari's built-in viewer	Microsoft Edge's built-in viewer
Opening the app again	Brings the running app forward	Hands its folder to the running app

The user guide covers each difference where it matters (Getting Started has the install steps); how the code handles them is in Windows Support.

How it works

Svelte UI (system WKWebView)  --invoke/events/channels-->  Rust (Tauri commands)
                                                    git2 (libgit2): fast reads (status, index stages, diff, log, refs)
                                                    git CLI: every write, so hooks, credentials, signing and config behave as in the terminal
                                                    merge engine: 3-way chunking with imara-diff (histogram)
                                                    watcher: debounced file events -> "repo-changed"
                                                    services: terminals (PTY), AI agents, search indexes, scripts, GitHub, MCP server

Memory is kept low by design:

• No bundled browser engine; the OS web view is used.
• Rust opens the repository per command and keeps no file contents between calls.
• Diffs load only for the selected file; CodeMirror renders only the visible lines; the log is paged and virtualized.
• Language grammars and big libraries (xterm.js, the Markdown preview, mermaid, color themes) load on first use; features that are off, like the Git Console and the MCP server, cost nothing.
• The merge tool is an overlay in the main window, not a second web view.
• Release builds use opt-level = "s", LTO, panic = "abort" and stripped symbols.

Development

Requirements: Rust (stable), Bun, and git. Bun runs every frontend tool on its own runtime (bun --bun), so no Node.js install is needed.

bun install          # frontend dependencies
bun tauri dev        # run the app with hot reload
bun run check        # svelte-check / TypeScript
bun run test         # frontend unit tests (Vitest)
cd src-tauri && cargo test --workspace   # Rust unit and git integration tests
bun tauri build      # release .app and .dmg in src-tauri/target/release/bundle
bun run ui           # the UI library showcase at http://localhost:1430

New UI is built in the component library first (ui/web), with the design tokens in ui/design-tokens that every platform shares; see ui/web/COMPONENTS.md.

Open a repository from the welcome screen, or pass it on the command line:

src-tauri/target/release/nibtree /path/to/repo

To try the merge tool on a throwaway repository full of conflicts:

scripts/make-conflict-repo.sh /tmp/conflict-demo

To try a folder holding several repositories (one nested, one mid-merge, one clean, plus a plain folder):

scripts/make-workspace-demo.sh /tmp/workspace-demo

Documentation

The wiki has a user guide with screenshots of every feature and developer docs with a chapter per feature (why it exists, how it works, the bugs we fixed). Its source is docs/wiki/: edit it there, never in the wiki. CI checks it with bun scripts/build-wiki.ts --check, and .github/workflows/wiki.yml publishes it when master changes. Screenshots are regenerated with bun scripts/screenshots.ts (see docs/wiki/developer/Docs-and-Screenshots.md).

Continuous integration and releases

• Branches: work merges into develop (the beta line) by pull request; master is stable.
• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs on every push to develop and master and every pull request, on macOS: bun scripts/version.ts check, bun run check, bun run test, bun scripts/build-wiki.ts --check, cargo test and cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings.
• Versions and notes: the version lives in src-tauri/Cargo.toml and only the release workflows move it. Release notes come from CHANGELOG.md, so write each change under ## [Unreleased] in the same pull request.
• Releases are automated: the "Beta release" and "Stable release" workflows open a release pull request; once it is merged (and, for a stable release, the develop to master pull request too), the GitHub release is published and the macOS app is built. Builds are unsigned unless the APPLE_* secrets are set.

The Releases and CI page has the full flow, every workflow and the one-time repository setup; Updates explains the stable and beta channels.

Using it as git mergetool

After building, point git at the binary inside the app bundle:

APP="/Applications/Nibtree.app/Contents/MacOS/nibtree"
git config --global mergetool.nibtree.cmd "\"$APP\" merge \"\$BASE\" \"\$LOCAL\" \"\$REMOTE\" \"\$MERGED\""
git config --global mergetool.nibtree.trustExitCode true
git config --global merge.tool nibtree

Then git mergetool opens each conflicted file. Apply (or Cmd+Enter) writes the result and exits with status 0, so git marks the file resolved. Cancel, Esc or closing the window asks first if you changed the result, then exits with status 1 and the file stays unresolved. Cmd+Q quits with status 1 without asking.

Settings

Open Settings with the gear button in the header, Nibtree > Settings... or Cmd+,. Its sections are Appearance, Editor, Git, Layout, Terminal, AI, Keyboard Shortcuts, GitHub, Automation, Updates, Settings Files and About. Changes apply immediately and are saved in a folder in your home directory:

~/.nibtree/
  settings.json   preferences (theme and color themes, fonts, editor, Git, terminal, AI, automation); safe to edit by hand
  state.json      recent folders, active repository per folder, panel layout and sizes
  github.json     the signed-in GitHub login (the token itself stays in the system keychain)
  mcp.json        the MCP server's secret token, plus its port while it runs
  logs/memory.log the debug memory log, only while it is on

The folder is created the first time a setting is saved. If settings.json or state.json contains invalid JSON, the app uses defaults for that file only, shows the error in Settings, and never overwrites it: fix it and click Try Again, or Reset it. The Settings page lists every setting.

Keyboard shortcuts

A few to start with (macOS keys; Help > Keyboard Shortcuts lists them all):

Key	Action
Shift Shift	Search Everywhere
Cmd+P / Cmd+O / Option+Cmd+O	Go to File / Class / Symbol
Shift+Cmd+F / Shift+Cmd+R	Find in Files / Replace in Files
Cmd+F / Cmd+R	Find / Replace in the editor
Cmd+S / Option+Cmd+S	Save / Save All
Cmd+K / Cmd+T	Commit / Update Project
Cmd+9	Show Git Log
Ctrl+ / Ctrl+Shift+	Show or hide the terminal / New terminal
Cmd+B / Option+Cmd+B	Files panel / Sidebar
Cmd+,	Settings

In the merge tool:

Key	Action
F7 / Shift+F7	Next / previous unresolved change
Cmd+Z / Shift+Cmd+Z	Undo / redo in the result (also restores chunk state)
Cmd+Enter	Apply (save the result and mark resolved), from any pane
Esc	Cancel (asks first if you changed the result)

Every shortcut is on the Keyboard Shortcuts page.

Project layout

src/                     Svelte UI
  lib/merge/             3-way merge view: model.ts (pure logic), extensions.ts (CodeMirror), MergeEditor.svelte
  lib/diff/              2-way diff view
  lib/log/               commit graph, commit details and commit tabs
  lib/editor/            CodeMirror setup, blame, conflict and change markers, find bar, editor commands
  lib/menu/, lib/help/   native menu bar and the Keyboard Shortcuts window
  lib/terminal/          integrated terminal and the Run tab
  lib/ai/                AI panel, agents, tasks, usage and keep awake
  lib/scripts/           Scripts tool window
  lib/search/            Search Everywhere and Replace in Files
  lib/markdown/          Markdown preview and rich editor
  lib/themes/            color themes
  lib/mcp/               UI side of the MCP server
  lib/stores/            app state: repositories, tabs, settings, navigation
  lib/views/             workspace, header, sidebars, changes, files, Git menu dialogs, GitHub, settings
  lib/update/            update check and What's New
  lib/api.ts, types.ts   typed bridge to the Rust commands
src-tauri/src/
  merge/                 3-way merge engine
  git/                   git2 readers and the git CLI runner
  commands/              Tauri commands
  terminal.rs, run_process.rs   terminals and script runs in pseudo terminals
  ai_usage/, keep_awake.rs      AI agents' usage limits and keeping the computer awake
  file_search.rs, symbols/, text_search/   Search Everywhere and Replace in Files
  scripts/, node_versions.rs    project scripts and installed Node versions
  github/, mcp/          GitHub account and the MCP server with its command line tool
  watcher.rs             repository file watcher
docs/wiki/               the wiki: user guide, developer docs and screenshots
scripts/                 versioning, wiki build, screenshots and demo repositories

The Project Layout page explains every folder.

License

MIT © 2026 MD. Shibbir Ahmed