HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
FredrikNoren
ungit
JavaScript2013–2024
FredrikNoren / ungit

ungit

The easiest way to use git. On any platform. Anywhere.

Web DevelopmentDeveloper Tools
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
17Distinct people
22Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
10.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

The easiest way to use git. On any platform. Anywhere.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

My favorite Git client by far is https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit. Its approach of modeling the entire commit history as a digraph is the way God (or at least Linus)…

jlkuester7 used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

  • jonas/tig · linked in 2 of the same discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year22 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2013-08-20 22:00:57 UTC to 2024-10-10 13:59:53 UTC.

012342013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments20132014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 1 submissions, 2 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC413
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC312
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202

What Hacker News says

22 sources
jlkuester7·Nov 17, 2020Recommendation phrase
https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit is one of my favorite Git tools. IMHO it is the perfect compliment to the command-line interface since it provides a nice visual model of your commit graph and branches. The graph is interactive so you can use the GUI for things like merging, rebasing, cherry-picking, etc (very nice for visualizing those changes). But at the same time, the Ungit interface mostly just stays out of your way unless you need it. It does not try to force you into a certain workflow or usage pattern.
In Git is too hard
aequitas·Nov 17, 2020
As with many things, the solution is complex because the problem is complex. Managing code history in a distributed manner, handling conflicts and allowing cooperative coding is not an easy problem to fix. Having said this, Git doesn't make it easy by the terminology and concepts that are used. And also the inconcise UI (you use git reset for a lot of very different actions, some harmless, some very destructive) doesn't make it easy for a newcomer. Who will often resort to just remember oneliners or look them up from a manual without knowing what they actually do. What really helped me in understanding Git was to understand the mechanics of the database on an abstract level. Commits and how branches/tags relate to them. If you understand that commits (not branches) are the tree and the branches just post-it's you put on the commits and ca
Read the rest
n rearrange as you please everything becomes much more malleable. Once you discover commits are hardly ever deleted/lost, but just the post-it's are moved (which makes the commits invisible), things become easily recoverable and fixable. Also not using code, but cats[1] also seems to greatly reduced the complexity of learning Git for me. Visual tools like Ungit[2], Tig[3], or plain Git log[4] help to see the commit tree and attached branches and gives an idea of how the data is manipulated. There is also the Gitless[0] project which tries to redefine the UI of Git, without changing the data format itself. It offers a different look at the same repository and more clear and dedicated commands/concept to perform certain tasks. And since it just uses Git itself underneath you can seamlessly switch between it and Git without issues. [0] https://gitless.com/ [1] https://girliemac.com/blog/2017/12/26/git-purr/ [2] https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit [3] https://github.com/jonas/tig [4] git log --oneline --decorate -50 --all --graph --remotes
In Git is too hard
cben·Jan 23, 2019
I only have a sample of 1 (my wife) but I've found Ungit: https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit unparalleled for explaining the graph model behind git — what's a merge, what it means to fetch vs pull, what's the difference between committing locally vs push etc... The specific points that make it great for such teaching: 1. pretty graph 2. hovering over actions such as Commit / Merge / Rebase / Push shows what would happen to the graph if you do it. 3. you can manually "Move" local & remote branches anywhere you want! This is mildly risky as a habit, but much clearer to explain than fast-forward and push, especially with multiple remotes. 4. automatic fetch that works pretty well (though explicit fetch UI with multiple remotes is clunky). For people scared of merging and conflicts, it's liberating to teach "fetch is always safe" and "lo
Read the rest
cal commit is always safe", and that you can fast-forward or merge/rebase separate step.
In How to teach Git
aequitas·Mar 14, 2018
Understanding that in git 'branches' are not really the branches but merely post-its that can trivially moved between the 'real' branches on the tree of commits really opened my eyes. Along with the use of visual tools like https://github.com/gitx/gitx, https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit, https://github.com/jonas/tig and aliases like `log --oneline --decorate -50 --all --graph --remotes`. It really changes Git from a bunch of vague commands to a toolkit that you can use to apply the changes you desire on the database and worktree. But even then I still get confused as the concepts of Git are not well translated into the commands, the various functions of reset and checkout. I think it is mentioned often before on HN but http://gitless.com/ is an good approach to create a new API/concepts on top of the same internals.
In Key Git Concepts Explained the Hard Way
aequitas·Mar 30, 2017
Some of the points mentioned are covered by the Ungit tool: https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit In terms of how your intended changes are visualized in the DAG model. I stopped using this tool after getting a beter understanding of Git core and how the commands manipulate the database. But I do still think the changes suggested in the post are valuable. I'm not inline with the whole GUI idea. But I like the concept of 'everything is a commit' and reducing the 'delta algebra' to their basic forms. As my biggest struggle with Git is always to make the translation of my intended change to the database into an abstract Git command.
In Reinventing the Git Interface (2014)

Showing the 15 most recent of 22 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.