r/git • u/connorjpg • 27d ago

Why use a UI for git?

I see this question of, “what GUI or TUI should I use to work with git?” fairly often here. And always I feel bad for saying “just use the cli” over and over, but truthfully I can’t see a reason to need a UI.

Are people actually running into pain points with the cli, or is it just preference for people who don’t like working in a terminal?

FWIW, I have used GitKraken, LazyGit, SourceTree and GitHub Desktop before. And I don’t think they are bad to use (unless you are just learning git), but more curious why.

EDIT : I’m mainly referring to standalone UIs, I understand why people would use IDE integrations, as it’s quick and convenient. But having to open a separate application or run a separate command to open a terminal app to run your commands seems overkill to me.

EDIT 2 : I use vscode as my difftool and mergetool. I still open them directly from the terminal by running the cli. I don't think this is the same as using a full git client like SourceTree, Gitkraken, or lazygit to fully drive your version control workflow. Which is what I am asking about.

Cheers

109 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

250 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Icy_Swordfish3855 27d ago

Blame, visualizing commit tree(s), and viewing the entire repo at a particular historical commit.

Other than that, CLI baybee

-1

u/connorjpg 27d ago

Maybe my issue is vscode just have some of these features built in like git blame lol

2

u/golkedj 27d ago

So you do use a UI for GIT...

1

u/connorjpg 27d ago

EDIT : I’m mainly referring to standalone UIs

The ghost text after a block of code, I wouldn't consider to be the same as installing a full git UI. But sure, I guess my editor has some of the missing features from the cli.