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git-repo-tracker

A fast, cross-platform system-tray app that watches your local git repositories. It discovers repos under directories you configure, periodically checks how far each branch is behind its origin, and surfaces the results in the menu bar plus a searchable popover — inspired by RepoZ.

git-repo-tracker in action

How It Fits Together

git-repo-tracker has a shared Go backend and platform-specific frontends. The backend discovers repositories, refreshes git state, caches snapshots, and applies config. The frontend decides how that state appears on your desktop.

On macOS, the packaged app is a menu-bar utility with a Fyne UI and small Cocoa helpers for native popover behavior. On Linux, the primary app uses the desktop's tray/AppIndicator support for a compact native menu and opens the full Fyne UI for search, settings, and repo actions. GNOME users can optionally run a separate Shell extension that renders a GNOME-native panel menu powered by the same headless CLI/backend.

See Platform Integrations for the full split.

Features

  • Discovery — recursively finds every git repo under your roots, pruned so even large trees scan in milliseconds.
  • Behind tracking — a background git fetch (working tree never touched) reports how many commits and lines each repo is behind.
  • Instant startup — last-known state is cached and painted before any git runs.
  • Search popover — left-click the tray icon for a searchable, virtualized list.
  • Inline detail — click a repo to expand its path and latest commit times; hover to reveal pull when behind or keep fresh when synced, plus open.
  • Keep fresh — opt a synced repo into safe automatic fast-forward pulls when a later refresh finds remote commits.
  • Update all — one button fast-forwards every repo that's behind.
  • In-app settings — roots, intervals, open action, and launch-at-login.

The search popover    Ubuntu native tray menu

On Linux, the native AppIndicator menu stays intentionally modest: it lists repos that are behind and provides Open App for the full searchable UI. The optional GNOME extension is a separate Shell-native frontend for users who want a richer GNOME panel menu.

Install

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install --cask laszukdawid/tap/git-repo-tracker

This installs git-repo-tracker.app into /Applications. It's a menu-bar app (no Dock icon, no main window), so launch it once from Launchpad/Spotlight or with open -a git-repo-tracker; its icon then appears in the menu bar and it keeps running in the background. Turn on Launch at login in the in-app Settings (☰ in the popover header) so it starts with you automatically. The cask strips the Gatekeeper quarantine flag, so the unsigned app opens without an "unidentified developer" prompt.

From source

Requires Go 1.26+ and git. On Debian/Ubuntu, task linux-deps first.

task run     # or: go run ./cmd/git-repo-tracker
task build   # produces ./git-repo-tracker

Status notation

↑n ahead · ↓n behind · ≡ even with upstream · +n staged · ~n modified · -n deleted · ?n untracked · Δ+a/-d lines behind · ⚠ last fetch/status error.

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