Branching by philocalyst · Pull Request #2890 · gitui-org/gitui

philocalyst · 2026-03-24T02:06:59Z

This Pull Request fixes/closes#81.

It changes the following:

Implements a complete view of commit lineage
Borrows the logic/implementation from the well-tested guitar
Conforms to the streaming model that was used in the previous version of the displays, meaning its performance impact is negligible.
Has a new keybind to hide the graph, as a toggle.
Expands and contracts dynamically based on what is currently on-screen
Makes good use of space by compressing whitespace when possible (Through re-using lanes)
Remains consistent against the rest of the UI.

I followed the checklist:

I added unittests
I ran make check without errors
I tested the overall application
I added an appropriate item to the changelog

philocalyst · 2026-03-24T02:07:38Z

@extrawurst Would love your feedback on this :) Quite large.

OH! And I just noticed that I removed the missing docs lint, I'll add that back if we agree on this general direction.

gogongxt · 2026-03-24T02:49:39Z

LGTM

extrawurst · 2026-03-29T18:34:12Z

-* fix extremely slow status loading in large repositories by replacing time-based cache invalidation with generation counter [[@DannyStoll1](https://github.com/DannyStoll1)] ([#2823](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2823))
-* fix panic when renaming or updating remote URL with no remotes configured [[@xvchris](https://github.com/xvchris)] ([#2868](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2868))
+### Added
+* Now with a graph view! 


please match the ususal format

extrawurst · 2026-03-29T18:53:09Z

I think we need to improve the visualization still, this is the same point in time of the history in three different tools: gitui, tig and fork:

philocalyst · 2026-03-29T22:05:06Z

Being precise here, the only difference I can see in the lack of a bottom connector? Or is there something else? ▰▰▰▰▰ Miles Wirth 🙃

…

From: extrawurst ***@***.***> Sent: 29 March 2026 11:53 To: gitui-org/gitui ***@***.***> Cc: Miles Wirht ***@***.***>, Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [gitui-org/gitui] Branching (PR #2890) extrawurst left a comment (gitui-org/gitui#2890) I think we need to improve the visualization still, this is the same point in time of the history in three different tools: gitui, tig and fork: <img width="623" height="291" alt="Screenshot 2026-03-29 at 19 50 36" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a05fed09-ce18-4f55-8915-e143b37b01d3" /> <img width="392" height="326" alt="Screenshot 2026-03-29 at 19 50 27" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8669dbeb-604b-4d25-ba8c-de5aa701ac95" /> <img width="895" height="227" alt="Screenshot 2026-03-29 at 19 51 51" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5cf8535b-3ce6-44a2-944d-a33c81c548ce" /> -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #2890?email_source=notifications&email_token=A3MQBNB5QFY6DKIO5JS2ZSD4TFWKZA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJVGA4DKNBWGE32M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2LK4DSL5RW63LNMVXHIX3POBSW4X3DNRUWG2Y#issuecomment-4150854617 You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Message ID: ***@***.***>

VojtaStanek · 2026-04-01T09:56:41Z

I am looking forward to this change!

By a quick look the source it seems like it works only with merge commits with 2 parents, but commit can have an arbitrary number of parents (see e.g. here).

philocalyst · 2026-04-01T15:37:03Z

@VojtaStanek Yes! Octopus merges! That's not covered here.

I couldn't find an implementation that handles them in a way that maps well to streaming. They don't crash anything, and happen incredibly rarely. If someone is able to extend what I have here, they're welcome to; but it shouldn't block merging.

cruessler · 2026-04-07T19:37:28Z

Thanks a lot for getting this started, that’s much appreciated! I just started reviewing the changes, but then I had a few more general questions.

In its current form, I find it hard to see merge commits and how they connect to their respective parents. The image below shows a comparison between this branch and tig in the gitoxide repository that has quite a few merge commits. Is there anything I need to set up to make merge commits more prominent? Does my terminal font need to have certain glyphs?

Also, in tig, vertical lines don’t get cut by horizontal ones, as opposed to guitar. I think I like tig’s approach better. What do you think?

philocalyst · 2026-04-07T20:05:45Z

No, that's just how they look :sad:. Good points -- I also wonder if people like the pressed texts to the facets of the branch lines? I could implement that as well. I think symbols... look cooler; but there are readability improvements we could aim for regardless, that these screenshots are making clear to me. The glyphs could expose be exposed as configuration. ▰▰▰▰▰ Miles Wirth 🙃

…

From: Christoph Rüßler ***@***.***> Sent: 07 April 2026 12:37 To: gitui-org/gitui ***@***.***> Cc: Miles Wirht ***@***.***>, Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [gitui-org/gitui] Branching (PR #2890) cruessler left a comment (gitui-org/gitui#2890) Thanks a lot for getting this started, that’s much appreciated! I just started reviewing the changes, but then I had a few more general questions. In its current form, I find it hard to see merge commits and how they connect to their respective parents. The image below shows a comparison between this branch and `tig` in the `gitoxide` repository that has quite a few merge commits. Is there anything I need to set up to make merge commits more prominent? Does my terminal font need to have certain glyphs? Also, in `tig`, vertical lines don’t get cut by horizontal ones, as opposed to `guitar`. I think I like `tig`’s approach better. What do you think? <img width="3440" height="1412" alt="Screenshot_20260407_212543" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c224b4a6-6a01-4942-be2f-fef91d63d40a" /> -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #2890 (comment) You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Message ID: ***@***.***>

extrawurst · 2026-04-16T19:29:41Z

I also wonder if people like the pressed texts to the facets of the branch lines? I could implement that as well.

Not for now.

The glyphs could expose be exposed as configuration.

Also not relevant for now. Lets find a visual style thats a good default and add customization in a later PR. THis one is big enough as is.

In its current form, I find it hard to see merge commits and how they connect to their respective parents

I agree with this. we either find better symbols or go for the letter M.

Furthermore I think we should use different colored lines for parallel branches like tig does for more clear separation.

philocalyst · 2026-04-17T12:42:20Z

With the updates, the PR is now looking like the above. Is this a better direction? @extrawurst

I plan to submit a follow-up PR with selection-based highlighting which I think will clear up the remaining vie
wing complexities (As ascii characters can only show so much, realistically). This would look like cutting over the "background" lines when a particular lineage is focused.

balintbarna · 2026-04-22T09:43:17Z

Hi all, if you need a reference for what looks good and works well in TUI then lazygit (go) and git-igitt (rust) are both very good at visualizing the graph. I think the table layout of lazygit makes more sense:

short hash | timestamp | name | graph | (tags, branches) message

it can also switch between --all mode and current branch
and the colors and highlighting are great
I think it would be a good source of inspiration for the desired look
it also has multi-commit selection by holding down shift and a lot of useful shortcuts on this view, such as squash, fixup, drop, edit, amend, checkout, reset, cherry-pick, which is probably a separate issue from visualizing it, but mentioned it for completeness sake.

https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit#commit-graph
https://github.com/git-bahn/git-igitt

philocalyst · 2026-04-22T19:27:05Z

When I looked at the algo's of git-gitt there was some issues around their design as a second-pass over a complete input, which is counter to the streaming design of gitui. Definitely still some issues I realize I miss when I review, I think there's still some issues with connecting pipes, but the tradeoffs of the algorithm feel solid to me.

balintbarna · 2026-04-22T22:05:34Z

@philocalyst thanks for your reply. I don't have any insight on the code of the above mentioned projects, my comment is purely from a user perspective.

I'm a software professional and my main way of interacting with git is lazygit, before that I used the integration in vs code with the very popular git graph extension and before that I used source tree. I also briefly tried gitkraken and more recently gitui. I use the CLI when I need to or when it's simpler.

While lazygit has some serious bugs and I disagree with some of their decisions which make me miss git graph from vs code, it is my favourite tool so far, and a big part of that is their graph view, and even if the first version in gitui isn't equivalent, I would like to suggest it as inspiration for what it could become, in addition to the also fantastic git graph extension in vs code and the visually appealing git-igitt.

philocalyst · 2026-04-22T23:07:28Z

I'm with you !! Yeah I do plan to do follow-up PRs, just adding in more of these complex previews might have to be done on a second pass on just the active window. ▰▰▰▰▰ Miles Wirth 🙃

…

From: balintbarna ***@***.***> Sent: 22 April 2026 15:05 To: gitui-org/gitui ***@***.***> Cc: Miles Wirht ***@***.***>, Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [gitui-org/gitui] Branching (PR #2890) balintbarna left a comment (gitui-org/gitui#2890) @philocalyst thanks for your reply. I don't have any insight on the code of the above mentioned projects, my comment is purely from a user perspective. I'm a software professional and my main way of interacting with git is lazygit, before that I used the integration in vs code with the very popular git graph extension and before that I used source tree. I also briefly tried gitkraken and more recently gitui. I use the CLI when I need to or when it's simpler. While lazygit has some serious bugs and I disagree with some of their decisions which make me miss git graph from vs code, it is my favourite tool so far, and a big part of that is their graph view, and even if the first version in gitui isn't equivalent, I would like to suggest it as inspiration for what it could become. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #2890?email_source=notifications&email_token=A3MQBNCKMUOFIA5ZN45NX3L4XE64LA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMZQGAZDKMRUHEYKM4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJNLQOJPWG33NNVSW45C7N5YGK3S7MNWGSY3L#issuecomment-4300252490 You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

cruessler · 2026-04-27T06:24:31Z

@philocalyst Thanks for the changes! I’ve now started the proper first review which should be ready by today or tomorrow if all goes according to plan! 😀

philocalyst · 2026-04-27T14:13:14Z

Thanks so much :) ▰▰▰▰▰ Miles Wirth 🙃

…

From: Christoph Rüßler ***@***.***> Sent: 26 April 2026 23:24 To: gitui-org/gitui ***@***.***> Cc: Miles Wirht ***@***.***>, Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [gitui-org/gitui] Branching (PR #2890) cruessler left a comment (gitui-org/gitui#2890) @philocalyst Thanks for the changes! I’ve now started the proper first review which should be ready by today or tomorrow if all goes according to plan! 😀 -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #2890 (comment) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

peso · 2026-04-27T15:29:49Z

Hi there. I'm still working on getting git-graph, now gleisbau, into gitui. The speed requirement from gitui can be solved by splitting the global branch trace algorithm off to a background thread, and then start at head. This will feel as if it starts instantly, but it will traverse the entire repo in due time. The split also addresses the memory issue seen in the gitui+gitgraph prototype from about a year go.

This is a major refactoring, so it will take some time. git-igitt is part of the git-bahn family and uses git-graph/gleisbau under the hood.

I think it is a good idea to get a graph feature into gitui as soon as possible. Everybody wants it. Maybe gleisbau can produce a visual improvement, but the major step is simply getting a graph. Congratulations to @philocalyst for reaching that goal.

cruessler

I’m sorry it’s taking so long! In order to not make you wait longer, I’m now sending you my first batch of comments, hoping they are already useful. As soon as I’m done with the next batch, you’ll get the next round of comments. I hope that works for you!

philocalyst · 2026-05-23T23:26:57Z

Balls back in your court! @cruessler

cruessler · 2026-06-08T07:57:02Z

@philocalyst wrote:
Balls back in your court! @cruessler

Really sorry it’s taking so long, I should be able to devote some time to this PR this week as I don’t have too many other obligations.

philocalyst · 2026-06-08T14:36:05Z

@cruessler Appreciated! Have another PR I've been sitting on for LFS, but didn't want to overwhelm the team -- so I'll be monitoring my github notifications closely to make sure this week isn't wasted!!

cruessler

I’m slowly getting myself familiar with the PR, in order to make sure I actually understand myself what is going on. 😀 I’ve got a couple of questions and remarks, some more fundamental than others. I’m also going to push minor refactorings that don’t warrant a comment to your branch as well, in order to make some areas more idiomatic. I hope that’s ok, if not, please let me know!

philocalyst · 2026-06-13T16:37:04Z

okay @cruessler you inspired me to do a pretty big refactor so sorry for the delay here! put a ton of effort into reducing the amount of redundant work as far as both clones and passing through the same commits/lanes twice or more. should be totally lazy as far as the graph goes, which i'm very happy to report! there's also a set of tests that should test the basics... (disclosure that i used $llm for the test writing, let me know if this goes against a policy and i will rewrite!)

Also I kind of overpromised with stashes, although I will do in a follow-up if all goes well :)

overly pessimistic collapsing rmeoved

philocalyst · 2026-07-27T06:25:54Z

Fixed conflicts !

cruessler

This is a partial review (as I want to spend some time with friends now 😀). I’m leaving it, hoping to unblock you at least a bit. @philocalyst Again, thanks for your efforts!

From what I can tell, the PR is already in a good state. I tried it in my copy of the gitoxide repository which has a few interesting merges, and I didn’t spot any issues.

This comes with a few caveats, though:

Since the PR was force-pushed, I was not able to pick up the review where I had left off after the previous one. This makes it harder to reconcile what’s new and what I’ve already seen which requires extra effort to review.
This is a very large PR. I can manage to review maybe 700 lines per hour, but there’s limits to my spare time, in particular to my ability to dedicate a few hours uninterrupted to reviewing code. :-)

In light of that, I’m worried that I’m blocking this PR from moving forward. We might want to consider adopting a different strategy for getting it merged, such as merging behind a feature flag/an option and then finding the remaining issues. Another option would be to try and write more test cases and try to cover this feature as completely as reasonably possible.

@extrawurst What do you think?

cruessler · 2026-07-28T08:29:49Z

+impl Default for Buffer {
+	fn default() -> Self {
+ Self::new()
+	}
+}


You might have missed this comment.

cruessler · 2026-07-28T08:31:44Z

+	}
+
+	pub fn update(&mut self, new_chunk: &Chunk) {
+ // Phase 1: place the new chunk into the lane array.


You might have missed this comment.

cruessler

New batch of comments. I expect to be able to have more time tomorrow as I’ll be on a train for a couple of hours. I want to spend them on wrapping up the review!

philocalyst · 2026-07-28T18:11:35Z

Thank you SO much for your review! Your thoroughness is deeply admired -- it's humbling to fix these mistakes.

As far as merge strategy goes, I am okay with writing more test-cases. Not really a fault of anyone in particular, but the response times in this project are measured in weeks/months in my experience, and I would rather not have to justify the removal of the flag-gating to eyes months removed (or have you guys have to continously re-acquaint).

philocalyst · 2026-07-28T22:45:15Z

And apologies about the force push, have been doing a lot of work on nixpkgs where it's preferred. I believe github preserves the original, but if you would like to see, I have it all in my reflog.

cruessler

Another batch of comments. There’s only 7 files left to review now, most importantly asyncgit/src/revlog.rs and src/components/commitlist.rs.

cruessler · 2026-07-29T09:54:06Z

+ parents: c
+ .parents()
+ .take(2)
+ .map(|p| CommitId(p.id()))
+ .collect(),


I haven’t gotten yet to profiling this addition against current master. It’s on my list, though.

we lost const :(

still mostly strict...

philocalyst · 2026-08-11T00:35:18Z

@cruessler All good?

philocalyst mentioned this pull request Mar 24, 2026
Show the branching structure in the log. #81
Open

extrawurst requested a review from cruessler March 29, 2026 17:29

extrawurst reviewed Mar 29, 2026
View reviewed changes

cruessler requested changes May 6, 2026
View reviewed changes

Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/oids.rs Outdated
Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/oids.rs Outdated
Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/oids.rs Outdated
Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/mod.rs Outdated
Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/oids.rs Outdated

cruessler requested changes Jun 8, 2026
View reviewed changes

cruessler reviewed Jun 9, 2026
View reviewed changes

Comment threadsrc/components/commitlist.rs

cruessler reviewed Jun 10, 2026
View reviewed changes

Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/buffer.rs

cruessler reviewed Jun 10, 2026
View reviewed changes

Comment threadasyncgit/src/graph/buffer.rs Outdated

philocalyst force-pushed the branching branch from 6ae497e to 23e9d71Compare June 13, 2026 16:44

philocalyst added 15 commits July 26, 2026 22:59

trailing comma and minor cleanup
351483e

fixed clippy lints
38b8896

restore [0.28.1] release notes lost in rebase conflict resolution
866dfef

fixed snapshot regression
0219b0c

fixes to spatial positioning
a36c6fb
overly pessimistic collapsing rmeoved

newtype wrappers for lane index and alias id
3efa839

rename Dirs to Directions
15c0deb

extract rendering helpers from walker
eb47860

clippy fixes
5bfb232

rename AliasId to CommitAlias, add UnwalkedAlias
62b4e19

replace Chunk/Markers with LaneSlot enum
2d0d19b

refactor buffer for LaneSlot
17cf91d

refactor walker for LaneSlot, add processed set
905e5ee

add graphrow symbol tests
25af6e9

parents on demand
db2efae

philocalyst force-pushed the branching branch from c943a5d to db2efaeCompare July 27, 2026 06:10

cruessler requested changes Jul 28, 2026
View reviewed changes

fixes for review comments
bb92d29

cruessler requested changes Jul 29, 2026
View reviewed changes

philocalyst added 5 commits July 29, 2026 23:54

new tests!
99d2b4f

cleanup
ed2eccf

rewordin
1664a6b

deref
13af006
we lost const :(

fixed regex for real
5a6e128
still mostly strict...

cruessler mentioned this pull request Aug 13, 2026
Add benchmarks for both log walkers #3013
Draft

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Conversation

philocalyst commented Mar 24, 2026• edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Mar 24, 2026• edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

gogongxt commented Mar 24, 2026

Uh oh!

extrawurstMar 29, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

extrawurst commented Mar 29, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Mar 29, 2026 via email

Uh oh!

VojtaStanek commented Apr 1, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 1, 2026

Uh oh!

cruessler commented Apr 7, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 7, 2026 via email

Uh oh!

extrawurst commented Apr 16, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 17, 2026

Uh oh!

balintbarna commented Apr 22, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 22, 2026

Uh oh!

balintbarna commented Apr 22, 2026• edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 22, 2026 via email

Uh oh!

cruessler commented Apr 27, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Apr 27, 2026 via email

Uh oh!

peso commented Apr 27, 2026

Uh oh!

cruessler left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented May 23, 2026

Uh oh!

cruessler commented Jun 8, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Jun 8, 2026

Uh oh!

cruessler left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Jun 13, 2026

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Jul 27, 2026

Uh oh!

cruessler left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

philocalyst commented Mar 24, 2026•
edited
Loading

philocalyst commented Mar 24, 2026•
edited
Loading

balintbarna commented Apr 22, 2026•
edited
Loading