LazyGit: A Terminal UI That Makes Git Less Painful

Git is powerful, but let’s be honest—its CLI can feel like a maze of cryptic commands. If you’ve ever wished for a more visual way to stage changes, browse commits, or handle merges without leaving the terminal, LazyGit might be your new best friend.

With over 62k GitHub stars, this open-source tool wraps Git’s complexity in a clean, keyboard-driven interface. No more memorizing arcane flags or spelunking through man pages—just a straightforward UI for the Git operations you actually use.

What It Does

LazyGit is a terminal-based UI for Git that lets you:

• Stage/unstage files with a few keystrokes
• Browse commits in a scrollable history
• Resolve merge conflicts visually
• Manage branches without typing git branch -D some-old-feature for the hundredth time
• Push/pull with less friction

It’s not a GUI—it’s a text-first interface that runs in your terminal, so it keeps the speed and scriptability of Git while ditching the verbosity.

Why It’s Cool

1. No Mouse Needed
   Navigate with vim-like keys (j/k to move, space to stage, c to commit).

2. Context Where You Need It
   See your working tree, stash, and commit history in a single view—no more tab-switching.

3. Merge Conflict Resolver
   Visualize conflicts and pick changes without leaving the terminal.

4. Extensible
   Customize keybindings or even add your own commands via the config file.

5. Lightweight
   Written in Go, it’s fast and runs anywhere your terminal does (Linux, macOS, Windows).

How to Try It

Install with one of these:

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install lazygit

# Scoop (Windows)
scoop install lazygit

# Go
go install github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit@latest

Then just run lazygit in any Git repo. For a quick demo, check out the animated GIFs in the repo.

Final Thoughts

LazyGit won’t replace Git’s CLI for advanced workflows, but it’s a huge quality-of-life upgrade for everyday tasks. If you’re tired of typing git status every 30 seconds or squinting at git log --graph, give it a shot. It’s one of those tools that feels obvious once you start using it.

Get it here or star the repo to support the dev.

— Follow us @githubprojects for more dev tools.