GitBeholder

GitBeholder is a modern Git backend designed to simplify and enhance your workflow. Built with Elixir and Phoenix, paired with a desktop app (app/, Tauri + React + TypeScript) living in this same repository, it allows users to perform key Git operations like commits, pushes, viewing diffs, exploring commit history, and more — all through a user-friendly interface.

Status: The desktop app is being built incrementally. It now covers the daily Git loop end-to-end — browsing workspaces/repositories, staging, committing, pushing/pulling, branch switching, stashes, tags, and diffing — through a resizable, zoomable UI. Anything not yet wired into the UI is still reachable as a JSON API directly (see API Documentation).

API Docs · Architecture Decision Records · DeepWiki · Roadmap · Contributing

Table of Contents

• Highlights
• Tech Stack
• Getting Started
• Running Tests
• API Documentation
• Project Structure
• Architecture Decision Records
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• Star History

Highlights

• Visual Git history navigation — walk commit history without leaving the app, including merge commits (diffed against their first parent).
• Commit management — stage/unstage, write a message, and create commits from the UI.
• Push & pull — send local commits upstream and bring remote changes down, with push status tracking.
• Branch management — list and switch branches.
• Stashes & tags — browse stashes and tags for the current repository.
• Diff viewer — inline file diffs per commit, with a resizable changes panel.
• File change tracking — see modified, untracked, and deleted files at a glance.
• Multi-workspace/repository browsing — organize repositories into workspaces and folders; clone, open-local, or init a repo from the UI.
• Remote platform detection — recognizes GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps remotes and shows the matching brand icon.
• Zoomable UI + status bar — adjustable zoom level and a footer showing the active repository.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Elixir and Phoenix
• Frontend: Desktop app in app/, built with Tauri + React + TypeScript
• Git Integration: Native Git CLI operations via Elixir
• API Communication: RESTful JSON endpoints

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Elixir ~> 1.14 (see mix.exs)
• Erlang/OTP installed
  • ⚠️ Erlang/OTP 28.0 ships with a known Hex compatibility bug (:re.import/1 undefined) that breaks mix deps.get. Use 28.1+ or 27.x instead.
• Git installed and available in the system path

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/elyosemite/GitBeholder.git
cd GitBeholder

Setup Backend (Phoenix)

mix deps.get
mix phx.server

The API will be available at http://localhost:4000.

Setup Desktop App (Tauri)

Prerequisites: Rust (cargo/rustc), Node.js, and pnpm.

cd app
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

The app expects the Phoenix API to be running at http://127.0.0.1:4000 (see Setup Backend above).

Running Tests

Run the full automated suite (controller tests + unit tests):

mix test

Run a single test file:

mix test test/git_beholder_web/controllers/git_repository_controller_test.exs

Run a single test by line number:

mix test test/git_beholder_web/controllers/git_repository_controller_test.exs:12

Testing the API manually

With the server running (mix phx.server), register a workspace and a repository, then query its status:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:4000/api/v1/workspaces \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "Engineering"}'

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:4000/api/v1/workspaces/1/repositories \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "my-repo", "path": "/path/to/a/git/repo"}'

curl http://127.0.0.1:4000/api/v1/workspaces/1/repositories/1/status

See docs/Getting Started.md for the full endpoint reference with request/response examples.

API Documentation

Full endpoint reference with request/response examples: docs/Getting Started.md

Project Structure

lib/
├── git_beholder/          # Core domain logic (one module per Git concern, via CLI)
│   ├── git_commit.ex
│   ├── git_diff.ex
│   ├── git_log.ex
│   ├── git_branches.ex
│   ├── git_push.ex / git_pull.ex
│   ├── git_staging.ex / git_stash.ex / git_tags.ex / git_status.ex / git_refs.ex
│   ├── repo.ex             # Ecto.Repo (SQLite)
│   └── repositories/       # Workspace/Folder/Repository schemas + context
└── git_beholder_web/       # Phoenix web layer
    ├── controllers/        # One JSON controller per Git module
    ├── plugs/              # FetchRepository — resolves + validates repository paths
    ├── endpoint.ex
    └── router.ex

app/                        # Desktop app (Tauri + React + TypeScript)
├── src/
│   ├── features/           # One folder per domain (branches, commits, push, pull,
│   │                       #  staging, stashes, tags, repositories, session), each
│   │                       #  with api.ts, types.ts, hooks/
│   ├── layout/              # Header, footer, resizable columns, AppShell
│   └── components/ui/       # shadcn/ui primitives (Tailwind v4)
└── src-tauri/               # Rust/Tauri shell (thin — no business logic)

Architecture Decision Records

Design decisions behind the project are documented in docs/architecture-decision-records.

Roadmap

• Side-by-side diff view (currently inline only)
• Interactive hunk-level staging (whole-file stage/unstage exists today)
• Branch creation, rename, and delete (list & switch exist today)
• Tag creation (browsing exists today)
• Merge & rebase interface with conflict resolution
• Multi-repository dashboard
• Work item integrations (Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Linear, Bitbucket) — auto-close linked work items on merge
• Editor integrations (VS Code, JetBrains)
• Bring-your-own-LLM AI analysis and commit assistance
• AI agent management

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change or propose.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/awesome-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add awesome feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/awesome-feature)
5. Open a pull request

Bugs and feature requests: use the issue tracker.

Star History

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Made with 💙 using Elixir + Git