gitant-daemon

Server for Gitant — decentralized Git hosting for solo developers and AI agents.

Developers: install the CLI from gitant-cli (push, issues, PRs).
Operators: run this repo (gitant serve) or Docker.
Browser: use gitant-web.
Agents: use gitant-mcp (64 MCP tools).

Full walkthrough: Developer quickstart (CLI + daemon + web + MCP + auth).

Quick Start

For developers (CLI)

Install the client and point it at your node:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GrayCodeAI/gitant-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
export GITANT_DAEMON_URL=http://localhost:7777
gitant doctor
gitant repo list

See the gitant-cli README for all commands.

Run the server (Docker — recommended)

git clone https://github.com/GrayCodeAI/gitant-daemon.git
cd gitant-daemon
docker compose up -d

Your node is running at http://localhost:7777.

Install daemon release

Pre-built server binary — GitHub Releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon example)
curl -LO https://github.com/GrayCodeAI/gitant-daemon/releases/latest/download/gitant-daemon_<version>_Darwin_arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf gitant-daemon_*_Darwin_arm64.tar.gz
sudo mv gitant /usr/local/bin/   # provides `gitant serve`

For push/pull/clone and API commands, also install gitant-cli.

Go install (requires Go 1.26+):

go install github.com/lakshmanpatel/gitant/cmd/gitant@v0.1.0

Container (published on tag push):

docker pull ghcr.io/graycodeai/gitant-daemon:latest
docker run -p 7777:7777 -v gitant-data:/home/gitant/.gitant ghcr.io/graycodeai/gitant-daemon:latest

Check the running version:

gitant serve --help
curl -s http://localhost:7777/api/v1/status | jq .version

From source

Requires Go 1.26+.

make build
make run    # starts gitant serve

Or manually:

go build -o bin/gitant ./cmd/gitant/
./bin/gitant serve

Install the CLI separately from gitant-cli for push, issue, pr, etc.

First repo

With gitant-cli installed and the daemon running:

# Create a repo (API or web UI)
curl -X POST http://localhost:7777/api/v1/repos \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name":"my-project","description":"Hello world"}'

# Init locally and push
mkdir my-project && cd my-project
git init && git add . && git commit -m "init"
gitant push --remote http://localhost:7777 --repo my-project

# Clone elsewhere
gitant clone my-project --remote http://localhost:7777 ./my-project-clone

Architecture

gitant-cli (Go)            Developer CLI — push/pull, issues, PRs, agents
gitant-daemon (Go)
├── HTTP API (go-chi)     REST endpoints for repos, issues, PRs, files, commits
├── P2P Networking         libp2p (DHT + GossipSub + mDNS)
├── Identity               DID:key (Ed25519) + UCAN tokens + HTTP Signatures (RFC 9421)
├── Storage                go-git + file-per-block content-addressed blockstore
├── CRDT                   Issues and PRs with Lamport clocks
├── Observability          slog structured logging + Prometheus /metrics
└── Security               Rate limiting, input validation, TLS support

gitant-mcp (TypeScript)    MCP server for AI agent integration (64 tools)
gitant-web (Next.js)       Web frontend (dashboard, issues, PRs)

CLI Reference

Server command (this repo):

Command	Description
gitant serve [--port P] [--data-dir D] [--tls-cert F] [--tls-key F] [--p2p] [--p2p-listen ADDR] [--p2p-mdns] [--bootstrap-peers ...]	Start the daemon

Client commands live in gitant-cli: push, pull, clone, issue, pr, task, agent, doctor, backup, and more.

Command	Description
gitant init	Initialize a local repo
gitant push --repo <id> --remote <url>	Push to daemon (packfile)
gitant pull --repo <id> --remote <url>	Pull from daemon
gitant clone <repo-id> [dir] --remote <url>	Clone from daemon
gitant backup -o <dir>	Backup data directory
gitant restore -i <dir>	Restore from backup
gitant issue list --repo <id>	List issues
gitant issue create --repo <id> --title <t>	Create issue
gitant issue close --repo <id> <id>	Close issue
gitant issue comment --repo <id> <id> --body <t>	Comment on issue
gitant pr list --repo <id>	List PRs
gitant pr create --repo <id> --title <t> -s <branch>	Create PR
gitant pr merge --repo <id> <id>	Merge PR
gitant pr review --repo <id> <id> -v approve	Review PR
gitant task list --repo <id>	List tasks
gitant task create --repo <id> --title <t>	Create task
gitant task claim --repo <id> <id>	Claim task
gitant task complete --repo <id> <id>	Complete task

API

All endpoints are under /api/v1/. OpenAPI spec available at /api/v1/openapi.json.

# Health check (with dependency status)
curl http://localhost:7777/health

# Status (version, uptime, repo count, identity)
curl http://localhost:7777/api/v1/status

# Prometheus metrics
curl http://localhost:7777/metrics

# OpenAPI spec
curl http://localhost:7777/api/v1/openapi.json

# List repos (paginated)
curl http://localhost:7777/api/v1/repos?offset=0&limit=20

# Search code
curl "http://localhost:7777/api/v1/repos/my-project/search?q=function"

Authentication

Endpoints that modify state (POST/PUT/DELETE) require authentication via UCAN Bearer tokens:

# Generate a DID
curl -X POST http://localhost:7777/api/v1/agents/generate-did

# Delegate capabilities
curl -X POST http://localhost:7777/api/v1/agents/<did>/delegate \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <server-ucan>' \
  -d '{"audience":"<client-did>","resource":"repo:*","actions":["read","write"]}'

# Use the UCAN token
curl -X POST http://localhost:7777/api/v1/repos \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ucan-token>' \
  -d '{"name":"my-repo"}'

GET endpoints are public (no auth required).

Configuration

Env Variable	Default	Description
GITANT_PORT	7777	HTTP port
GITANT_DAEMON_URL	http://localhost:7777	Daemon URL (for CLI/MCP)
GITANT_UCAN_TOKEN	(none)	UCAN token (for MCP server)
GITANT_CORS_ORIGINS	http://localhost:3303	Comma-separated CORS origins

TLS

# With TLS certificates
./bin/gitant serve --tls-cert /path/to/cert.pem --tls-key /path/to/key.pem

# Behind reverse proxy (no TLS flags needed)
./bin/gitant serve --port 7777

Production Deployment

Docker Compose (simple)

docker compose up -d

With nginx reverse proxy

# Copy nginx config
sudo cp deploy/nginx/gitant.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitant.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

With Caddy (auto HTTPS)

sudo cp deploy/caddy/Caddyfile /etc/caddy/
sudo systemctl reload caddy

Backup & Restore

# Create backup
./bin/gitant backup -o /backups

# Restore (won't overwrite existing files)
./bin/gitant restore -i /backups/gitant-backup-20260522-143000

Monitoring

Prometheus

The /metrics endpoint exports:

• gitant_http_requests_total — request count by method/path/status
• gitant_http_request_duration_seconds — latency histogram
• Standard Go runtime metrics

Grafana

Import the dashboard from deploy/grafana/gitant-dashboard.json into Grafana. Panels include request rate, latency percentiles, error rate, goroutines, and memory usage.

Health Check

curl http://localhost:7777/health
# Returns: {"status":"healthy","checks":{"identity":"ok","storage":"ok"}}

Returns 503 with {"status":"degraded"} if dependencies are unhealthy.

Development

# Build
make build
./bin/gitant version

# Run tests with race detector
make test

# Lint
make lint

# All checks
make all

# Validate release config (local snapshot, no publish)
make release

License

MIT