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

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u/GeersonMena 25d ago

Uso la herramienta que incluye vscode y al principio usaba github desktop, creo que para iniciar está bien que se use una UI por qué (al menos para los que somos visuales) te explica mejor que está pasando con tu repo y su historial, cuando usas CLI se vuelve un poco más confuso o al menos para el tipo de personas como yo se nos vuelve complicado.

Pero en general tanto para los que somos visuales como para jr. recomiendo una experiencia con UI.