gittwig

A terminal user interface (TUI) for viewing and switching git branches, built with Python and Textual.

I built this because I wanted a quick way to view git branches and switch between them. Vibe-coded with Claude Code.

This provides a fast, easy way to browse branches, see the commit history for a given branch, identify files changed in a branch, and view file diffs with syntax highlighting. As an open source developer who works with many branches across multiple projects, this is very helpful for figuring out where I left off and juggling multiple branches.

Features

• Browse local and remote branches in a navigable list
• View changed files compared to your default branch
• View commit history unique to each branch
• Syntax-highlighted diff viewer
• Checkout branches with Enter
• Create and delete branches
• Fetch, push, and pull operations
• Filter branches with / search
• Vim-style keyboard navigation

Installation

Requires Python 3.12 or later.

Install uv and run:

uv tool install gittwig

To run with uv without installing:

uv tool run --from gittwig twig

Usage

Run twig in any git repository:

twig

Or specify a repository path:

twig /path/to/repo

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | j / k | Move cursor down / up | | h / l | Focus left / right pane | | g g | Go to top of list | | G | Go to bottom of list | | Ctrl+d / Ctrl+u | Page down / up | | Enter | Select item / checkout branch |

Branch Operations

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | n | Create new branch | | d | Delete branch (with confirmation) | | r | Refresh data | | f | Fetch from remotes | | p | Push current branch | | P | Pull current branch |

Other

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | / | Search/filter branches | | ? | Show help | | q | Quit | | Escape | Close modal / cancel |

Development

# Install development dependencies
uv sync --group dev

# Run tests
pytest

# Run linter
ruff check .

# Run type checker
mypy src

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.