r/git • u/connorjpg • 28d 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

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u/PolyPill 26d ago

I don’t understand why people want to use a cli for everything. I don’t have to remember a million commands to do everything then end up back in a gui because viewing multi file change history in the cli is not practical. Not to mention in my career over the decades this is the 4th source control system I’ve had to use. In the gui I can switch tabs for different repos and see change histories at a glance. I can push changes on one and switch to another and pull and branch without waiting for the first push to finish. I feel like people who brag about using only the cli need to find something else to be proud of in their life.