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// features

Every feature, in one place.

The whole catalog, grouped and scannable.

Diffs & staging

  • Unified & split diffs, syntax-highlighted in ~190 languages
  • Line, hunk & file staging — drag the line numbers or use a keybind; one drag picks up added and removed lines together in unified or split view, with Shift to take one side
  • Stage or discard part of a brand-new, untracked file
  • Image diffing & collapsible surrounding context
  • Raw ⇄ Preview toggle on markdown & MDX diffs — read the change as rendered prose
  • Filter the changes list by path or category
  • Flat list ⇄ compacted directory tree in the Changes panel — collapsible folders, keyboard-first
  • Per-file added/deleted line counts on the changes list
  • Commit with co-authors suggested from history; amend, undo, revert
  • Pop the commit box out into a dialog — a roomier editor with your staged files alongside
  • Recoverable, recycle-bin discards

Branches & history

  • Branch compare — ahead/behind, three-dot diff, jump to PR, commit menu + tags
  • Update a branch from its upstream — no checkout needed
  • Push or publish a branch to any remote — no checkout needed
  • Start a branch from any base — another local branch or a remote ref
  • Check out or delete remote-only branches from the switcher
  • Archive branches — hide from the switcher without deleting
  • Clean up branches in bulk — archive or delete stale ones in one sweep, including branches merged through a pull request
  • Paged, filterable commit history with rich detail
  • File history & line blame
  • Commit-author avatars in history
  • Unpushed commits flagged in history

Rewrite & recovery

  • Interactive rebase — reword / squash / fixup / edit / drop / reorder, atomic replay
  • Change base — replay only a branch's own commits onto a new base
  • Cherry-pick commits onto the current or another branch
  • Merge preview — fast-forward / already up to date / clean / which files conflict, before you merge
  • In-app conflict editor — current / incoming / both, or mark files resolved as they stand on disk
  • Stash browser
  • Stash and reapply — one click when a pull, merge, rebase, update or switch is blocked
  • Recover lost work — git fsck for orphaned stashes, restored non-destructively
  • Operation journal — records risky ops & recovers if one is interrupted

Pull requests & review

  • PRs on GitHub, GitLab & Bitbucket + private, offline local PRs
  • Local PRs follow a branch renamed in GitDesktop
  • Local-PR merges pre-show conflicts, resolved in an isolated worktree
  • See when a pull request won't merge cleanly — and resolve the conflicts in-app, in an isolated worktree
  • A blocked merge names why — unmet checks & required approvals (GitHub), the blocking reason (GitLab)
  • Set labels & assignees when you open a PR/MR (GitHub & GitLab)
  • A PR you're opening holds its place in its list — title, branches & draft state, then its number
  • A failed PR create raises a notification — branch and reason named, even when it fails in the background
  • Link related issues as you open or edit a PR — auto-detected from your branch and commits (GitHub & GitLab; Bitbucket via linked Jira)
  • Request reviewers on a PR/MR (GitHub, GitLab & Bitbucket)
  • Inline review comments — reply, resolve, apply suggestions locally
  • Compose a review from the diff — batch drafts, submit with a verdict
  • Drill into a PR's commits — per-file diffs, whole-commit & line comments
  • PR activity feed — reviews, comments, grouped commits, stale-approval marks, all timestamped
  • Comment on commits from History — whole-commit or line-anchored
  • Fork · Upstream lens — browse & work a fork's PRs and issues or the parent's
  • Fork PR maintainer actions — approve blocked workflow runs, update the branch, and push follow-ups to the contributor's fork
  • Stacked PRs — position badges and a stack navigator; create, extend, or dissolve a stack from the PR view; on GitHub, merge a stack bottom-up in one go
  • Retarget a pull request's base branch from the edit dialog — on GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket
  • Unfinished-review notice — a review you started on GitHub surfaces on the PR, to finish or discard
  • Triage the PR list — All | Mine | Needs review presets and whole-repo filters (GitHub & GitLab), with grouping by your review state (GitHub)
  • Refresh the PR list on demand — one press re-reads the list, its checks, conflict chips & review grouping

Forges & trackers

  • GitHub, GitLab & Bitbucket — first-class, each on its own identity
  • GitHub Enterprise — same features, via gh
  • Self-managed GitLab — any host glab is signed in to
  • Multiple accounts, switch the active one per host
  • Sign in & reconnect in-app — session-expired detection & token-expiry warnings, rate limits told apart (with GitHub's reset time), plus scope hints that reconnect with the needed scope
  • Repo switcher — forge logo & visibility badge per row, grouped by owner
  • Jira Cloud — link a project, browse & work issues in-app
  • Jira keys in branches, commits & PRs link back to the Issues tab

Issues & discussions

  • GitHub & GitLab issues, plus private local to-dos
  • Refresh the issue list on demand — forge, local & linked-Jira lists in one press
  • Code TODOs — scan TODO/FIXME/HACK comments, jump to blame, promote to an issue
  • Issue types, sub-issues & dependencies on GitHub; related issues on GitLab
  • Issue list filters — All | Mine, plus author & label across the whole repository (GitHub & GitLab)
  • Issue activity timeline — labels, assignees, milestones, renames, linked PRs, mentions & state changes, with actor avatars
  • GitHub Discussions — read, post & react
  • Close or reopen with a comment — on PRs, issues & discussions, your draft posts alongside

Projects

  • Project boards — GitHub Projects as a kanban, table or roadmap, with saved views and keyboard reordering
  • Project board columns — from Status or any single-select field, or by iteration for a sprint board
  • Project card order — reorder cards within a column from the keyboard, saved as the project's own order GitHub shows everyone
  • Project cards & drafts — add issues, PRs or Markdown drafts, edit a draft or convert it to an issue & peek at issue and PR cards with Space
  • Project card actions — move, archive, restore or remove a card from its menu or many at once, and set fields across a selection in one go
  • Project tables — a saved table view's columns, sort & foldable row groups, with field values edited right in their cells
  • Project roadmaps — item bars on a month, quarter or year axis marking today, the current iteration & milestones, with dates you nudge from the keyboard
  • Project status updates — the latest status, note & target date above the board, the history newest-first, and post, edit or delete your own updates
  • Project & view management — create, edit, close, reopen or delete projects; add, rename, duplicate or delete saved views
  • GitHub Projects — link issues & PRs to repo and owner projects
  • Project field values — read & set Status, Priority, Iteration & dates on issues and PRs, plus organization issue fields on issues

CI, tags & releases

  • GitHub Actions — runs, jobs, steps, re-run, cancel & dispatch
  • GitLab & Bitbucket pipelines — runs, job logs, re-run, cancel & trigger, in-app
  • CI checks rollup — pass/fail/pending/skipped, live step progress on running Actions checks, one-click re-run of failed or cancelled runs, plus single failed jobs (GitHub & GitLab; fork-sourced MRs link out)
  • Tags, releases & cross-platform assets — edit notes (GitHub & GitLab), sync the updater manifest (GitHub)
  • Insights graphs — commit activity, churn & more, computed locally
  • Fork activity — a repo's recently active forks, with ahead/behind on GitHub
  • Findings tab — GitHub Dependabot/scanning alerts & advisories; GitLab SAST, secrets & code quality; Bitbucket Code Insights

Repository & workspace

  • Clone, add local, create (README/.gitignore/license) or fork
  • Explore repositories — search GitHub, GitLab & Bitbucket, then clone, fork or star
  • My work — one cross-repo inbox of your open GitHub PRs and issues, GitLab MRs and issues, and Bitbucket PRs
  • Update a fork from its upstream — fetch, then fast-forward or merge
  • Detach from a fork — remove the upstream remote from the repository menu, palette, or settings; leave the fork network on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket (in-app on GitLab)
  • Publish a local repo to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket — choose the GitHub owner or Bitbucket workspace
  • Locate a moved repo — repoint the entry and bring its local PRs, issues, review history & automations along
  • Worktree manager — create, switch, rename, lock, promote & remove, with a last-active time per worktree
  • Open a branch's worktree from its row in the branch list, with the worktree actions on the branch's context menu
  • Submodule manager — add, remove, update & track branches, edit URLs, open as repo
  • Tasks — register a repo script or write one inline and run it in an interactive terminal, kept to one repository or available in all
  • Manage tracked & ignored files
  • --force-with-lease + --force-if-includes (Git 2.30+) by default
  • Push menu for a branch tracking a differently named branch — push to it, or publish under its own name
  • Rewrite-aware divergence — a server-rebased branch gets a confirmed Reset to origin/…
  • Fork-point guard — a rebase pull asks before an upstream rewrite drops your commits
  • Auto-fetch — quiet background sync, never auto-pulls
  • Activity & notifications inbox — never miss a finished review or check
  • Per-source notification controls — in-app vs OS channels, failures-only CI, per-repo overrides
  • Environment & CLI health check
  • Native macOS menu bar — File menu with Open Recent
  • Remembers window size & position
  • Narrow windows & split-screen layouts — down to 640px, with a collapsible sidebar and diff file list
  • Themes — System, Light, Dark & a softer Slate

Admin & settings

  • Repo settings & webhooks (admin)
  • Collaborators & invitations (admin)
  • Branch rulesets — create, edit, enable/disable (admin)
  • Code security & analysis toggles (admin)
  • Danger zone — rename, archive, visibility, transfer, delete (admin)
  • GitHub Pages — source, custom domain, HTTPS (admin)
  • Actions/Dependabot/Codespaces secrets & variables (admin)
  • Edit the Sponsor button (.github/FUNDING.yml)
  • Branch-protection rules, locally
  • Promotion branches — update offers withheld on their PRs and branch menus
  • Git hooks manager — husky / pre-commit / lefthook aware
  • Edit git config — identity, default branch, line endings

Keyboard & Markdown

  • Command palette + rebindable, filterable keys — down to a single key
  • Arrow-key navigation on every list
  • Generated shortcut cheat sheet
  • GitHub-Desktop-compatible defaults
  • Markdown editor — formatting toolbar & live preview
  • Collapsible comment box — reclaim reading space, actions stay docked
  • Jump to either end of a long thread — scroll-aware buttons on PR, issue & discussion conversations
  • @mention & #reference autocomplete, plus !123 on GitLab — GitHub & GitLab comments, replies, release notes, local PRs & issues
  • Reference autolinks — #123, @user, and GitLab's !123 open the issue, pull request, or profile they name
  • Reference preview cards — hover or Tab to a #123 or !123 for its state, title & author, or to an @user for their avatar & handle
  • Link previews — hover or Tab to a link for its domain & full URL, plus the page's title, description & image
  • Fullscreen image viewer — screenshots in any rendered body and both sides of an image diff, with fit/100% zoom and arrow-key stepping in fit view

✦ AI · generate & review

  • Generated commit messages, PR & issue titles/descriptions
  • AI branch names — from your in-progress changes, or the branch's own committed work
  • AI suggests PR/MR labels from your repo's existing set
  • AI issue drafting from your repo's templates
  • AI repo descriptions & topics
  • Generate a task's script from plain English — or analyze one to document it
  • AI code review & security audit on any PR
  • Hand review context to the AI reviewer — per-branch notes deposited by your agent, read by every review (automated or one you start) with a per-run opt-out
  • Agentic review — reads the full diff, files, search & history, read-only
  • Reviews keep running in the background & finish in the tray
  • Queue the other review mode while one streams — runs it next
  • Review effort — dial the reviewer's reasoning from a light pass to Max
  • Review timeout — agentic reviews get 20 minutes, or pin your own limit
  • AI ignore patterns — .gitignore syntax, keeping chosen files out of generation and review
  • AI excluded files view — every hidden file with the rule that hid it, a warning on a ! line that decides nothing, and rule removal in place
  • Iterative reviews build on the last round & other bots' findings
  • Re-reviews remember the discussion — triage replies honored, context sized to your model
  • Reviews converge — a fuller first round, non-blocking leftovers listed apart
  • Every re-review ends with a verdict — blocking issues remain, or merge when ready
  • Reviews know where your docs live — one finding names every stale surface
  • AI reviews are clearly machine-authored — post as a GitLab project bot
  • Automations — review or audit on commit, PR open, or new commits, with notifications for everything or failures only
  • Automation history — a per-repo log of what ran, what was skipped & why, plus run an automation on demand
  • Resolve merge conflicts with AI — review the proposal, then accept
  • Debug failed CI with AI — logs to a root-cause & fix

✦ AI · agents & sessions

  • Delegate a task to a Claude, Codex, Copilot or opencode agent — searchable model picker (live opencode, Codex and Copilot catalogs), any typed id accepted
  • Default agent — pin one, or follow a CLI-agent AI provider
  • Watch the agent work step by step, with an inline diff per edit
  • Best-of-N — run one task across agents/models, keep the best
  • Run agents in a Docker/Podman sandbox (opt-in), per session or by default
  • Add per-repo tools to the agent container via a custom image
  • Integrated terminal in each session (host & container)
  • Research a topic with web search — Brainstorm & Deep research, cited
  • Plan a task into an agent-ready issue (read-only)
  • Hand an issue or plan to an agent to implement
  • Agent sessions — tabs, search & completion alerts
  • Slash commands & skills in the agent composer

✦ AI · MCP & providers

  • Use GitDesktop as an MCP server — read-only default, opt-in write ladder
  • Trigger GitDesktop's AI generation from an external MCP client
  • Bring your own MCP servers, opted in per session
  • Browse the official MCP registry to add servers
  • Bring your own model — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google AI Studio, OpenRouter, Ollama, or a keyless agent CLI (generation & review)
  • Google AI Studio as a first-class provider — paste an AI Studio key and pick from your live Gemini catalog
  • Point AI at a custom or LAN Ollama / OpenAI-compatible server
  • Keys live in your OS keychain; one switch hides every AI surface

That's a lot to keep open all day.

Free, open source, and local — for GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.

Download GitDesktop Back to the tour