PwrGit docs

Install

PwrGit ships as a signed macOS app and a signed Windows installer, both of which update themselves. Pick your platform, then read First launch — PwrGit does nothing useful until it knows which folders your repositories live in.

Pick your platform

Platform Artifact Notes
macOS 12 or later PwrGit-<version>-universal.dmg One universal build — Apple silicon and Intel
Windows 10/11, x64 PwrGit-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe Per-user install, no administrator rights

Builds are published to GitHub Releases on pwrdrvr/PwrGit. That repository is internal, so downloading a build requires access to it — if the link 404s for you, that is what happened, and it is an access question rather than a broken link.

There is no Homebrew cask and no Linux package. See Not yet.

macOS

  1. Download PwrGit-<version>-universal.dmg.
  2. Open it and drag PwrGit onto Applications.
  3. Launch it from Applications.

The app is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper lets it open without a right-click-Open dance and without a trip to System Settings.

macOS 12 (Monterey) is the floor. The build is universal — one download runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel — so there is no architecture to choose.

PwrGit asks for no system permissions on macOS. It reads and writes the folders you point it at and nothing else.

Windows

  1. Download PwrGit-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe.
  2. Run it. It installs per user, so it does not prompt for administrator rights, and it lets you change the install directory.
  3. Launch PwrGit from the Start menu.

The installer and the executable are code-signed, so SmartScreen should not interrupt you. Each release also publishes a PwrGit-windows-SHA256SUMS file if you want to verify the download.

Windows builds are x64 only — there is no Arm64 installer, so Arm devices run it under emulation.

First launch

PwrGit opens on an empty sidebar. It does not scan your disk uninvited; you tell it where to look.

  1. Create a profile, or edit the one you have. A profile is a workspace: a name, a commit email, and a set of repo folders.
  2. Add one or more repo folders. PwrGit scans each to a bounded depth for git repositories and lists what it finds.
  3. Set the profile’s commit email. This is the address your commits are authored with while that profile is active, and the commit box in the rail names it before you commit.

If you work under more than one identity — a company address and a personal one — make a profile for each rather than switching git config by hand. Each profile gets its own window, and Command+1 through Command+9 (Ctrl+1–Ctrl+9) switch between the first nine. See Profiles.

New worktrees are created under ~/wt/<repo>/<branch> unless the repository already tells PwrGit otherwise. Worktrees you created yourself elsewhere are found and listed wherever they are — see Worktrees.

Updates

PwrGit checks for updates on its own, downloads them in the background, and installs on the next restart. Help → Check for Updates forces a check; so does the Check for Update button in Settings → Updates.

When a build has downloaded, Settings → Updates grows a Restart to Update (<version>) button. Until you press it, or quit the app normally, nothing is replaced.

Two independent choices decide which builds reach you:

Choice Options What it means
Release train Stable, Beta Stable is the smoke-checked train. Beta follows the main branch.
Update track Latest, Prerelease Latest is smoke-checked. Prerelease is newer and may not install.

That is four feeds, and Settings → Updates shows the version currently sitting in each one, so you can see what a switch would actually move you to. A slot reading Unavailable means no build has been published to it yet — Beta stays selectable regardless.

Stable + Latest is the default and the right answer unless you have a reason to want otherwise.

Uninstall

macOS — quit PwrGit and drag it from Applications to the Trash.

Windows — uninstall PwrGit from Settings → Apps → Installed apps, or from Add or Remove Programs.

Neither one removes your data. PwrGit keeps its index, settings, and logs in its own application-data folder:

Platform Location
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/PwrGit/
Windows %APPDATA%\PwrGit\

That folder holds pwrgit.db (the repository and worktree index), settings.json, pwrgit-main.log, and a cache of commit author avatars. Delete it to remove every trace; keep it to preserve your profiles and pins across a reinstall.

Your repositories and worktrees are untouched by any of this. They are ordinary directories that PwrGit indexed — removing the app removes the index, not the checkouts. If you want the worktrees gone too, remove them from inside PwrGit first (see Remove a worktree), because deleting the directories by hand leaves stale administrative entries in each repository’s .git.

Not yet