gitlanes

GitLanes is a desktop application for macOS that gives you a visual interface for working with Git, the version control system that developers use to track changes to code. Instead of typing commands in a terminal, you interact with a graphical display of your project history, branches, and staged changes. The app runs only on Apple Silicon Macs (the M-series chips) and requires macOS 11 or later.

The main screen shows a commit graph: a visual map of your project history organized into lanes for each branch. You can right-click on any commit or branch in the graph to take actions like checking out, cherry-picking, reverting, resetting, creating tags, or copying identifiers. Destructive actions show a plain-language description of what will happen before you confirm, which is helpful if you are not deeply familiar with Git.

GitLanes has a three-row layout: the graph at the top, a workspace area in the middle for staging and reviewing changes, and a built-in terminal at the bottom. The terminal runs your regular shell (zsh, bash, or fish) with full support for interactive tools. Switching to a different repository automatically moves the terminal to that directory.

There is also built-in AI assistance. You can connect it to Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or a locally running Ollama model by entering your API key, which the app stores in the system keychain rather than saving it to a file. The AI can explain what changed in a commit or suggest a commit message based on your staged changes.

The app includes automatic update checking on launch, with updates verified using a signing key so they cannot be tampered with. The interface supports both English and Traditional Chinese. Known current limitations include no Intel Mac support, no persistent AI conversation history, and a single terminal session with no tabs.