Twig

Lighter than the rest. A lightweight, fast Git GUI desktop application built with Tauri v2.

Overview

Twig is a GitKraken-inspired Git GUI that prioritizes speed and native Linux Wayland support. It uses a hybrid git backend: git2 (Rust) for all read operations and the system git CLI for all write operations and LFS, giving you both performance and full compatibility.

Features

• Multi-repo tabs -- open multiple repositories in tabs with independent state
• Visual commit graph -- branching graph with colored lanes, Gravatar avatars, virtualized scrolling (handles 10k+ commits)
• Branch management -- local/remote branch listing, checkout, create, rename, delete, push, fetch
• Diff viewer -- unified and split views, syntax-colored additions/deletions, LFS pointer detection, binary file handling
• Staging area -- unstaged/staged file lists, per-file or bulk stage/unstage, inline diff preview
• Commit & sync -- commit message editor (Ctrl+Enter), push, pull

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Tauri v2 (Rust + WebView)
Frontend	Svelte 5, TypeScript, Vite
Styling	TailwindCSS v4 (dark theme)
Git reads	git2 Rust crate
Git writes	System git CLI via tokio::process
Icons	Lucide Svelte

Target Platforms

Primary: Linux (Wayland via WebKitGTK). Also works on X11, macOS, and Windows.

NVIDIA + Wayland is handled automatically at runtime (GPU detection in main.rs).

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust >= 1.77 (with cargo)
• Node.js >= 20 (with npm)
• System dependencies (Linux): libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libappindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev, libssl-dev

On Arch/CachyOS:

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 libappindicator-gtk3

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libssl-dev

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

This starts the Vite dev server with HMR and launches the Tauri app. Rust recompiles on changes to src-tauri/.

Production Build

npm run tauri build

Outputs a release binary and platform packages (.deb, .rpm, .AppImage) in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Project Structure

twig/
├── src-tauri/                  # Rust backend (Tauri)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs             # Entry point, Wayland GPU setup
│   │   ├── lib.rs              # Tauri builder, command registration
│   │   ├── state.rs            # AppState: thread-safe open repo map
│   │   ├── error.rs            # TwigError enum (thiserror)
│   │   ├── commands/           # Tauri command handlers
│   │   │   ├── repo.rs         # Open, close, list repos
│   │   │   ├── graph.rs        # Commit graph data
│   │   │   ├── branches.rs     # Branch CRUD + push/fetch
│   │   │   ├── diff.rs         # Commit and working diffs
│   │   │   └── staging.rs      # Stage/unstage, commit, pull
│   │   └── git/                # Git operations layer
│   │       ├── reader.rs       # git2-based reads (graph, branches, diffs)
│   │       └── writer.rs       # CLI-based writes (checkout, push, commit)
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── tauri.conf.json
├── src/                        # Svelte frontend
│   ├── main.ts                 # App mount
│   ├── App.svelte              # Root component
│   ├── app.css                 # TailwindCSS v4 + design system tokens
│   ├── lib/
│   │   ├── tauri.ts            # Typed invoke() wrappers
│   │   ├── types/git.ts        # TypeScript interfaces
│   │   └── stores/             # Svelte stores (repos, graph, ui)
│   └── components/
│       ├── layout/             # AppShell, TabBar, Sidebar
│       ├── graph/              # CommitGraph, GraphCanvas, CommitRow
│       ├── branches/           # BranchList
│       ├── diff/               # DiffViewer, DiffHunk
│       └── staging/            # StagingArea
├── index.html
├── package.json
├── vite.config.ts
└── tsconfig.json

Architecture

Separation of Concerns

All git operations happen in Rust. The frontend only calls Tauri commands and renders state.

Frontend (Svelte)  ──invoke()──>  Commands (Tauri)  ──>  Git Layer (git2 / CLI)
    │                                                         │
    └── Stores ◄── State updates ◄── Results ◄───────────────┘

Git Backend (Hybrid)

Operation	Backend	Rationale
Commit graph, branches, diffs, status	git2	Fast, in-process, no subprocess overhead
Checkout, commit, push, pull, fetch, stage	System git CLI	Full compatibility, hooks, LFS, credential helpers

Commit Graph Rendering

The graph uses a lane assignment algorithm that:

1. Walks commits in topological order
2. Assigns each commit to a lane (column), reusing free lanes
3. First parent inherits the lane (straight continuation), merge parents branch off
4. Outputs per-row data: commit lane, pass-through rails, parent lane targets

The frontend renders each row as an SVG with vertical rails, bezier curves for merges, and colored commit nodes. Rows are virtualized (only ~50 visible at a time) for performance with large repos.

Design System

Dark theme only. Key tokens defined in app.css via @theme:

Token	Value	Usage
--color-bg	#1a1b26	Main background
--color-surface	#1f2335	Panels, sidebar
--color-surface-elevated	#24283b	Hover states, active items
--color-accent	#7aa2f7	Primary accent (blue)
--color-accent-secondary	#bb9af7	Tags, special branches (purple)
--color-lane-0..5	Various	Git graph lane colors

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

AGPL-3.0 - Copyright 2026 Igor Kalicinski