Use Git to review and commit local work, inspect history, and exchange changes with remote repositories. Open Git from the navigation rail; enable it in Settings → Features if it is unavailable.
Code previews and comparison/merge panes share a saved point size with Text Editor and IDE, defaulting to 9 points. Ctrl+wheel zoom in a code editor updates other open code panes. Both code family and size use the shared Styling settings. Toolbar and navigation icons, toolbar count badges, and the selected navigation row (including File status) use the shared accent color and update when the theme changes. Set it under Settings → Appearance & shared controls → Styling.
Install Git 2.40 or newer. Logistics uses git from your PATH; Settings → Advanced → Git executable…
lets you choose another executable and checks its version. Before opening a repository,
Settings selects Git’s feature preferences in Logistics Settings. Git is supplied separately
from Logistics.
- Open… selects an existing working repository, including a linked worktree.
- Clone… accepts an HTTPS/SSH URL or local repository path and a new or empty destination. You can choose a branch and initialize submodules recursively.
- Init… creates Git metadata in a selected folder while keeping existing files.
Each open repository has its own tab. Switching tabs preserves commit drafts, previews and operation logs. Drag horizontally to reorder, or outside the tab bar to detach; its toolbar and repository controls travel with it. Use + for a new pane. On narrow panes, the toolbar overflow menu keeps actions reachable. Recent repositories are available under + → Bookmarks. + → Manage bookmarks… pins or removes bookmarks. Open, Clone and Init are in the same menu. Removing a bookmark keeps all repository files on disk. Bare repositories can be remote destinations; open working repositories in the UI.
Git also exposes File, Edit, View, Repository, and Actions menus. On macOS they appear in the system menu bar when Git is active; on Windows/Linux they appear inside the pane, or at the top of its detached window. Menus follow the active repository tab and use the same commands and confirmations as the toolbar. File contains Open, Clone, Init, bookmarks, preferences, and Close Repository Tab. Edit operates on the focused text field (read-only previews support copying), and can copy the selected History commit's hash. View switches between File Status, History, and Search, and toggles the operation log. Use Command on macOS or Ctrl elsewhere with O to open, F to search history, and 1/2/3 to switch views. Repository groups repository operations and settings; Actions contains selected file/commit commands, folder/terminal shortcuts, custom actions, and operation continuation, abort, and cancellation. Commands are disabled when their required selection or repository is unavailable, or an operation is running.
For private repositories, configure your Git credential helper or SSH agent first. Set up SSH host trust outside Logistics. The app uses stored credentials and avoids invisible terminal prompts. Use URLs without passwords, HTTPS credentials, or query tokens. Authentication errors appear in the operation log.
Choose File status in the left WORKSPACE section. It separates Staged files
and Unstaged files, with conflicts marked ! in the unstaged list.
Hover over a filename for its full status label (such as Modified, Added,
Untracked or Renamed) and Git status code. The IDE tree uses the same full
tooltip wording while keeping its regular file-type icons.
One file can appear in both staged and unstaged groups when you edit it after staging.
Select a file to inspect its diff; untracked text files show a bounded content preview.
Binary files show an explanation instead of text.
- Check files or use Stage file beside the diff. Stage all includes untracked files and deletions.
- Use Unstage to remove selected changes from the index while keeping working files.
- Enter a commit subject and optional description, then Commit. The button is disabled until files are staged.
- If Git needs an author name/email, use More… → Commit identity…. This saves repository settings, shared with linked worktrees, without changing global identity.
Double-click an ordinary changed file, or right-click it and choose Open working file in editor. With IDE enabled, files inside a registered IDE project open there, reopening closed projects and reusing existing file tabs. If registered roots overlap, the most specific root wins. Other files use Text Editor, which must be enabled in Settings. Saving refreshes Git. Missing files and paths resolving outside the repository cannot be opened through this action. Conflicted files still open the Git merge resolver on double-click. The optional double-click staging preference continues to stage/unstage ordinary files instead.
Discard… restores selected ordinary tracked files from the index. It leaves staged changes in place. Review the listed paths: Git history generally cannot recover uncommitted edits. Logistics enables discard backups by default; see Git preferences for their location and manual restoration. If you disable that preference, Logistics does not keep those recovery copies. Untracked files, conflicts, renames, and submodule changes need their own handling and are excluded from this action.
Amend last commit replaces the branch tip. Review the confirmation before amending published history. Failed commits retain their message draft. Closing a repository tab or the app asks before discarding a draft.
Enable Push changes immediately to origin/{branch} to push after a successful
commit. This option requires an origin remote and an attached local branch.
If pushing fails, the commit remains saved; retry with Push.
The toolbar's Commit badge counts changed files, including untracked files. Pull and Push count incoming and outgoing commits against the configured upstream, using the last fetched remote state. Fetch updates that state and has no numeric badge. Zero counts are hidden.
Each diff hunk has its own card. Cards stay compact and aligned at the top as the window grows, with consistent spacing between cards even when headers wrap; with Wrap enabled, their height follows the wrapped code as the window width changes. Multiple hunks scroll together when they do not fit. In File status, use Stage Hunk or Unstage Hunk to change only that hunk's staging, or Discard Hunk… to discard an unstaged hunk after confirmation. A changed preview must be refreshed before applying it. Hunk actions require a complete, unfiltered patch for an ordinary tracked text file; use file actions for untracked files, conflicts, renames, mode changes, submodules and files with content conversion filters. History and Search cards are read-only.
When files have pending changes, Uncommitted changes appears above the commit history. Select it to review its files and diffs without leaving History. Use File status for staging. It disappears after the working tree and index become clean and the workspace refreshes.
Choose History in the left WORKSPACE section to see the commit graph, subjects, branch/tag decorations, authors, dates, and hashes. Select a commit for its metadata and changed files below the graph; select a changed file for its patch. Merge changed files compare the first parent. Changed files are listed by full repository-relative path. Search files by name or path filters this list independently of the history search. Below the list, the commit message and identity fields summarize the selection; click a parent hash to select and scroll to that commit in history. Diff hunks show old/new line numbers and colored addition/deletion rows. Patch headers are hidden in the normal view. Use the arrow buttons to jump between hunks, Wrap to read long lines, and Raw to inspect the original patch. Ignore whitespace hides whitespace-only differences for review; staging or unstaging a file still affects all its changes. File badges identify added (+), modified (M), deleted (−), renamed (→), untracked (?) and conflicted (!) files. Use Full tree at commit to browse every historical file and read its contents. Double-click a file in History (including Uncommitted changes), the full tree, or Search results to open its current working file through the same IDE/Text Editor routing as File status. This edits the current file on disk; files that no longer exist cannot be opened, and single-click previews still show historical content. Submodule entries show the recorded child commit. File actions stage, unstage or discard whole files.
History starts with 200 commits. Load 200 more commits expands it up to 5,000. History’s branch selector shows all loaded branches or only ancestors of the current branch. Its quick filter matches loaded messages, authors, hashes and refs, hiding the graph so omitted rows cannot imply false ancestry. Search opens the separate repository-wide search view described below. Find in preview searches the displayed text; Enter moves to the next match.
Branch… creates a branch at HEAD or the selected history commit and optionally switches to it. Double-click a local branch to switch. Its context menu also offers merge, rename, setting an upstream without pushing, and deletion of merged branches. Git refuses to delete unmerged or checked-out branches. Remote branches offer creation of a local tracking branch.
More… provides merge, cherry-pick, revert, and comparison of the selected history commit against HEAD. Cherry-pick/revert of merge commits require a mainline choice and are outside this version's UI.
More… → Add remote… configures a name and URL. The remote's context menu can fetch, edit its URL, or remove it. Removing a remote keeps the server repository.
- Fetch updates configured remote references.
- Pull… offers fast-forward only (initial default), merge, or rebase of the upstream.
- Push… pushes the current branch to its configured upstream. Alternatively, publish to a chosen remote/branch and set the upstream. Force-with-lease is available only after enabling it in Git preferences and confirming the individual push.
Ahead/behind counts reflect the last fetched local references. Fetch again to learn about server changes. Push affects only the current branch and does not automatically publish tags or other local branches. Push tags with the selected branch is an opt-in Git preference.
Open Logistics Settings → Feature settings → Git. Options contains
systemic defaults and resettable personal overrides, including commit behavior,
preview limits, diff colors, executable, refresh and command options. Choose
Default Software Configuration or Personal Settings at the top left.
The personal Git preferences page contains identity, accounts, custom actions,
default usernames and release links. More… → Git preferences…, + → Git preferences…, and repository
Settings → Advanced → Git preferences… select this same settings page.
Systemic settings save to the tracked config.ini in software mode, or its
persistent AppData override INI in personal mode. ↶ removes a personal override.
Identity/account/action data and repository history remain in git.json; tokens
remain in secure credential helpers. Existing JSON systemic options migrate once.
Shared code family and size are in Appearance & shared controls → Styling.
Saved options apply across open panes. Revert discards pending identity/account
edits; repository bookmarks and drafts are kept.
- General controls the initial project folder, last-repository restoration, terminal choice (Terminal/iTerm on macOS), file-change refresh (on by default), optional periodic origin fetch (off by default), and staging/branch-switch confirmations. File watching is limited to 2,000 existing files/directories; use Refresh for larger repositories or changes in previously unwatched nested directories. Global author identity is edited only when its explicit checkbox is enabled; local identity overrides remain.
- Accounts adds, edits, removes and selects a default account per host. HTTPS tokens go directly through a secure credential helper: macOS Keychain, libsecret or Git Credential Manager with a native credential store. Tokens are sent on standard input, never saved in preferences or displayed in the operation log. Removing an account also erases its helper credential when you click Save. SSH accounts use existing keys and agents. GitHub browser sign-in opens Git Credential Manager in a terminal; install it first, finish its browser prompt, then add the username here and choose Git Credential Manager authentication. Logistics does not register its own OAuth application or request passwords.
- Commit controls selection (without staging), the default push checkbox, fixed-width message font and column guide, and an importable plain-text template. A nonempty Logistics template overrides an inherited Git template. Explicit repository templates, including “None”, take precedence. Existing drafts stay intact.
- Diff options control addition/deletion colors, wrapping, bounded text capture, and file patterns skipped for preview. Patterns affect review only. External diff/merge tool names use existing Git configuration; invoke them through More with a selected file/conflict. Binary files have no internal text preview.
- Git selects the executable, ignore list, default pull strategy, double-click staging, recursive submodule updates, dirty-submodule checks, tag pushing, HTTPS certificate verification, merge commit policy and history date source. These options affect Logistics commands without rewriting global Git configuration.
- Custom Actions supports ordered entries and optional shortcuts. Parameters
are a JSON string array, such as
["status", "--short"]for programgit.{repo},{file}and{commit}expand within individual arguments. A selected file/commit is required for its placeholder. Actions run in the repository, through the cancellable worker, without shell expansion. - Advanced controls discard backups (on by default), persistent log visibility, force-with-lease,
diagnostics, a GPG executable and per-host default HTTPS usernames. Backups keep
the file bytes before whole-file or hunk discard under the repository's Git
metadata in
logistics-backups/<id>/, withpaths.jsonmapping backup names to original paths. They are not committed. Restore them manually if needed. - Update opens Logistics releases and release notes. Mercurial, embedded Git/git-flow/LFS runtimes, automatic update installation, Gravatars and language customization are not implemented here. Theme and language use Logistics itself.
Credential-store operations and explicitly enabled global identity changes are separate from the JSON save; a failed save can leave those operations completed. Review the operation error before retrying. Browser sign-in is a separate action and is not undone by cancelling preferences. Hooks and custom actions manage their own backups and side effects.
More… → Create tag… creates a lightweight tag or an annotated tag with a message, at HEAD or the selected commit. Right-click a tag to view its commit, push it to a chosen remote, or delete the local tag. Remote tags are kept when deleting locally.
Stash… saves changes with a message and optionally includes untracked files. The stash context menu offers Apply, Pop, and Drop. Apply keeps the saved stash; Pop removes it after a successful application. Review the confirmation before Drop.
A failed merge, pull/rebase, cherry-pick, or revert can leave conflicts. The workspace refreshes and shows the current operation and conflict files. Double-click a conflicted text file or choose Resolve conflict… to open the shared three-pane merge editor. Apply independent changes, choose either side, keep both, or edit the center result and mark the selected change resolved. Apply checks for external file/index changes. Optionally check Stage resolved file after saving, then use Continue. During rebase the side labels identify the rebased-onto revision and replayed commit. Binary, delete/modify, symlink, submodule and conversion-filter conflicts require manual resolution with Git or another appropriate editor. Abort… asks Git to restore the operation's starting state. Conflicts from stash application are resolved/staged manually; there is no separate stash Continue action.
More… → Recover from reflog… lists the latest 100 HEAD movements and creates a rescue branch at a selected commit. By default it keeps your current branch and working files. This can preserve commits displaced by an amend or another history operation while their objects still exist.
Under More…:
- Worktrees… lists linked working directories, opens another one, or creates a new worktree for an existing branch not already checked out elsewhere.
- Submodules… shows recursive status, initializes/updates recorded child commits, adds a submodule by URL/path, or opens a child folder as its own repository. Commit child changes in the child repository, then stage and commit its updated reference in the parent. Git's transport/security settings remain in effect.
- Subtrees… offers Add, Pull, and Push for a relative prefix and upstream URL/branch, with optional squash for Add/Pull. The extension must be available in your Git installation. Successful mappings are remembered locally. Start with a clean working tree and review the target before pushing.
Each repository pane runs one Git job at a time and displays progress in Operation log. Cancel operation requests process-tree cancellation; partial clones and repository changes already made can remain. The workspace refreshes after writes, including failures. Closing waits for the worker to stop.
Use Refresh after changes made outside Logistics. Re-entering the destination, Git operations, and integrated editor saves also refresh it. Personal preferences can enable file watching and periodic origin fetch; see the limits under Git preferences. Text preview capture is bounded and configurable; oversized structured responses report an error rather than silently losing entries.
Background status reads avoid changing Git's index, and the focused field retains keyboard focus when a refresh temporarily disables the workspace controls. Automatic refreshes also preserve repository-operation errors until another operation replaces them.
This version supports whole-file and eligible hunk staging, side-by-side review, three-way text conflict resolution and configured external diff/merge tools. Interactive rebase editing, reset/clean, LFS management, sparse/partial cloning, and worktree removal are not provided by this UI. Account setup is available, but repository hosting tasks such as pull-request review remain outside this workspace.
Compare sides… beside a pending file opens full versions (Index / Working file, or HEAD / Index for staged files) in linked, resizable panes. This review does not stage or modify files.
Use the toolbar’s Settings button for the current repository. Commit
Template selects inherited, disabled or custom starting text; an existing draft
is kept. Remotes stages additions, URL edits and removals until OK.
Security controls commit signing using your existing Git signing tools.
Advanced selects inherited or repository-specific author identity, opens
.gitignore in IDE or Text Editor using the same project routing, and offers the personal Git executable
chooser. Local settings are shared with linked worktrees; global Git settings
are kept. Cancel discards pending dialog changes.
The toolbar’s Terminal opens a terminal at the root of the active repository. Open, Clone, Init and bookmark commands live in the repository tab’s + menu.
Select Search in the Git sidebar. The search bar offers Commit Message (including the message body), Commit SHA (a full hash or prefix of at least four characters), Branch (commits reachable from matching local/remote branches), File Changes (changed filename or path text, including deleted paths), and User (author name or email). Text matches are case-insensitive. From and To include both endpoint days, using local time and Git commit timestamps. Search reads repository history rather than only the rows loaded in History; results load in batches of 200, up to 5,000. Very large file-path searches can reach the Git output limit; narrow the date range in that case.
Selecting a result shows its commit details, changed files and diff below the results. In History, selecting Uncommitted changes stays in History and shows the current files and their changes against HEAD, including both staged and unstaged changes.
Repository tabs use the shared detached containers. The + in a detached window opens repository choices for that window, and new repository panes stay there. Closing Logistics also checks detached panes for drafts and running workers.
Text Editor and IDE can discover a file's Git repository without registering it here or opening this page. Their change markers compare the live buffer against the index. Click a marker to review/revert buffer lines or preview a saved Git hunk for staging. Staging uses the same regular-file, attribute and stale-patch checks as this page. Its patch preview can group nearby markers into one Git hunk; only the displayed hunk is staged. These editor actions do not auto-register repos.