# SourceGit: A Cross-Platform Git GUI That Wraps the Command Line

> SourceGit is an MIT-licensed Git client for Windows, macOS and Linux written in C#. It covers clone, rebase, worktrees, LFS and bisect, but the README is explicit that Linux has only been tested on Debian 12.

**sourcegit-scm/sourcegit** — Windows/macOS/Linux GUI client for GIT users

- Repository: https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit
- Stars: 6,065 · Forks: 519
- Language: C#
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-09-22 · Updated: 2026-09-22 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sourcegit-scm-sourcegit

## The problem SourceGit solves for people who avoid the terminal

Git's command surface is wide, and most of it is memorised rather than read. SourceGit puts that surface behind a desktop window: clone, fetch, pull and push; merge, rebase, reset, revert and cherry-pick; amend, reword and squash; interactive rebase; branches, remotes, tags, stashes, submodules and worktrees. The README also lists archive, diff, save as patch and apply, file histories, blame, revision diffs, branch diff and image diff with side-by-side, swipe and blend modes. That last set matters more than it sounds. Comparing two revisions of a PNG in a terminal is not a workflow anyone enjoys, and SourceGit treats it as a first-class view.

The audience is narrower than "everyone who uses Git". It is the engineer who already knows what rebase does and wants to see the graph while doing it, or the reviewer who needs blame and file history without leaving the repository. The README's own framing is a "Windows/macOS/Linux GUI client for GIT users", not a beginner's on-ramp. There is no mention of a tutorial mode, guided conflict resolution or an explanation layer for people who have never resolved a merge.

## How SourceGit is put together, and what that means for your machine

The repository is a C# solution (SourceGit.slnx) with src/, build/, depends/ and tools/ directories at the top level, plus a translate_helper.py script and a TRANSLATION.md file. The README lists fourteen interface languages, including German, English, Spanish, Indonesian, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Tamil and Korean. That is a lot of translation surface for a project of this kind, and it implies the UI strings are externalised rather than hardcoded.

The design point that shapes everything else is that SourceGit does not reimplement Git. The README describes "GIT commands with GUI" and a "Git command logs" feature, which tells you the app shells out to the git binary and keeps a record of what it ran. That is why the very first line of the usage section insists you install Git 2.25.1 or newer before anything else. It also explains why MSYS Git is explicitly not supported on Windows: the app expects the official Git for Windows layout and its cmd directory, which is exactly where the README tells you to drop a renamed git-flow binary.

State is kept outside the repository. On Windows it lives in %APPDATA%\SourceGit; on Linux under ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/SourceGit for preference.json and ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/SourceGit for avatars and logs; on macOS in ~/Library/Application Support/SourceGit. A data folder placed next to the executable forces portable mode, but the README limits that to Windows packages and Linux AppImages. If you are deploying on macOS or a Linux tarball, portable mode is not available to you.

## Installing SourceGit and opening a first repository

Install Git first. The README states the minimum is 2.25.1, and every later step assumes the git binary is on your PATH. On Windows, the README says to use official Git for Windows rather than MSYS Git.

On Windows the documented route is Scoop. Adding the extras bucket and installing the package pulls the prebuilt binary from the releases page.

```bash
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install sourcegit
```

On macOS, a third-party maintainer publishes a Homebrew cask. The README credits @ybeapps for it.

```bash
brew install --cask sourcegit
```

If you instead download SourceGit.app from the project's release page, the README notes those packages are unsigned and gives this command to clear the quarantine attribute. It also points at a signed package in a separate distribution repository if you would rather not run it.

```bash
sudo xattr -cr /Applications/SourceGit.app
```

Two macOS prerequisites come from the README: git-credential-manager must be installed, and you can write a custom PATH file so the app inherits your shell environment.

```bash
echo $PATH > ~/Library/Application\ Support/SourceGit/PATH
```

On Linux, two community repositories are documented. The deb route from the Codeberg-hosted repository looks like this.

```bash
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl https://codeberg.org/api/packages/yataro/debian/repository.key | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/sourcegit.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/sourcegit.asc, arch=amd64,arm64] https://codeberg.org/api/packages/yataro/debian generic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sourcegit.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sourcegit
```

The README also documents a second deb repository at https://deb-repo.gadfly.vip and an rpm repository for Fedora, where the repo file is fetched and piped through sed before being added with dnf config-manager. After installation, the first real use is the same everywhere: clone a repository from the Clone dialog, or open an existing working copy, then open the main menu item "Open Data Storage Directory" to confirm where settings and logs are being written. If that path is read-only in your environment, fix it before you configure anything, because preference.json lives there.

## Where SourceGit gets in your way

The most concrete limitation is stated in a warning block: Linux has only been tested on Debian 12, on both X11 and Wayland. That is one distribution, one release. If you run Fedora, Arch or an older Ubuntu LTS, you are outside the tested set, and the project says so rather than implying broader coverage. Treat any rendering or credential-helper problem on another distribution as untested ground.

The macOS situation is a packaging constraint rather than a bug. Release-page packages are unsigned, which is why the README hands you the xattr command; the signed alternative lives in someone else's repository. If your organisation forbids running that command, you are relying on a third party's build pipeline.

Portable mode is partial. The README says the data folder trick works only with Windows packages and Linux AppImages, so anyone standardising on a macOS .app or a Linux deb cannot redirect user settings and avatars next to the binary.

Git-flow is the sharpest edge. Since Git for Windows 2.51.1, git-flow is no longer shipped with Git for Windows, and the README's workaround is manual: download git-flow-next, unzip it, rename the binary to git-flow, and copy it into $GIT_INSTALL_DIR/cmd or add its path to PATH. If your team's branching model depends on git-flow, that is a setup step each developer performs by hand, and SourceGit will not do it for you.

Finally, the README does not document rollback of a failed operation, undo of a completed rebase, or recovery from a botched reset. The command logs show what ran, which is useful for diagnosis, but the README does not promise anything beyond that.

## SourceGit compared with SourceTree, Fork and GitHub Desktop

The related searches show people comparing SourceGit with SourceTree, Fork and GitHub Desktop, and the honest difference is scope and licence rather than features. GitHub Desktop is built around a GitHub-centric flow: clone, branch, commit, push, pull request. SourceGit's README lists remotes generally and PR creation across GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Gitee and Bitbucket, so it is not tied to one host. If your repositories live on a self-hosted Gitea instance, that distinction decides the choice.

SourceTree and Fork are the closer comparisons, because both aim at the full command surface the way SourceGit does. The difference the README supports is licensing and platform posture: SourceGit is MIT-licensed and its source is in this repository, so you can read what a dialog does and build it yourself. The README also lists features that are less common in this class of tool, specifically worktrees, bisect, Git LFS, submodules and image diff. Worktree support in particular is rare in GUI clients, and the related searches include "source git worktree", which suggests people are looking for exactly that.

Two features are worth calling out because they are not standard in a GUI. The README lists "Using AI to generate commit message" and a "Built-in conventional commit message helper". The AI feature implies a configured provider, and the README does not describe which one or how credentials are supplied, so treat it as something to inspect in the settings rather than something to rely on out of the box. The conventional commit helper is the safer of the two: it is a formatting aid with no external dependency.

## Maintenance, licence and the cost of keeping up

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22. Releases are frequent and date-based: v2026.21 on 2026-09-21, v2026.20 on 2026-09-14, v2026.19 on 2026-08-31. That cadence is the main upgrade cost. A date-versioned release every one to two weeks means you either follow along or you fall behind quickly, and the deb and rpm repositories documented in the README will pull new versions on their own schedule.

The licence is MIT, which is permissive: you can use, modify and redistribute the code, including in commercial settings, provided the licence notice travels with it. The repository also carries a THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md file, which is where the dependencies' terms are recorded. If you redistribute a build, that file is the one to read before you ship. Nothing here is legal advice; check the actual licence text and the third-party list against your own policy.

One upgrade consideration is specific to this project. Because SourceGit shells out to git, a Git upgrade can change behaviour underneath a SourceGit version you have not changed. The README's note about git-flow disappearing from Git for Windows 2.51.1 is a live example: the GUI did not change, but the environment did.

## Conclusion

Adopt SourceGit if you want a free, MIT-licensed Git GUI that exposes the full command surface (worktrees, LFS, bisect, interactive rebase) and you are willing to run the commands yourself when a dialog is missing. Skip it if you need a signed macOS package from the project itself, if you run MSYS Git on Windows, or if you depend on git-flow being bundled with Git for Windows since 2.51.1. Before committing a team, verify three things on your own machine: that Git is at least 2.25.1, that your Linux distribution behaves like the Debian 12 X11 and Wayland setups the README says were tested, and that the data directory under your config path is writable.

## FAQ

### Is SourceGit free?

Yes. The repository is licensed under MIT and the README lists "Opensource/Free" among the highlights. There is no paid tier mentioned anywhere in the README.

### How do I install SourceGit?

Install Git 2.25.1 or newer first, then use Scoop on Windows (scoop install sourcegit), the Homebrew cask on macOS (brew install --cask sourcegit), or one of the documented deb and rpm repositories on Linux. Prebuilt binaries are also on the releases page.

### What is SourceGit?

SourceGit is an open source Git GUI client for Windows, macOS and Linux, written in C#. It exposes Git commands through a desktop interface, including clone, rebase, worktrees, submodules, LFS and bisect.

### How does SourceGit compare with SourceTree?

The README does not describe SourceTree's feature set, so a side-by-side is not possible from the available documentation. What can be said is that SourceGit is MIT-licensed with source in this repository, and its README lists worktrees, bisect, Git LFS, image diff and PR creation across GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Gitee and Bitbucket.

### How do I use SourceGit?

Install Git 2.25.1 or newer, launch SourceGit, and clone a repository from the Clone dialog or open an existing working copy. The main menu item "Open Data Storage Directory" shows where settings, avatars and logs are written.

### Is SourceGit good?

The README lists the feature set (worktrees, bisect, LFS, submodules, image diff and PR creation across several hosts) and states that Linux has only been tested on Debian 12 on X11 and Wayland. Whether that coverage is enough depends on your platform and workflow.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit/issues)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [README](https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit/blob/master/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit/releases)
- [sourcegit-scm/sourcegit on GitHub](https://github.com/sourcegit-scm/sourcegit)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sourcegit-scm-sourcegit