Git Genius (gitcli)

Beginner-friendly interactive Git assistant for daily workflows, setup, and recovery.

What It Solves

• Removes command memorization with guided terminal menus
• Handles common Git mistakes with safer defaults and confirmations
• Helps first-time setup for repo, branch, remote, and GitHub token
• Includes health diagnostics via built-in Doctor checks

Features

• Daily Git Operations: push, pull, smart pull, fetch, status
• Branch and Remote Management: switch branch and remote safely
• Recovery Tools: stash save/list/pop and undo last commit (keep changes)
• Guided Setup: configure work dir, repo, branch, remote, identity, token
• GitHub Linking: create or link remote repository
• Doctor: validates git install, project state, token, remote, repo status

Installation

Quick install (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Smthbig/gitcli/main/install.sh | bash

Then run:

git-genius

Fresh reinstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Smthbig/gitcli/main/uninstall.sh | bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Smthbig/gitcli/main/install.sh | bash

Update to latest version

The installer is update-aware and exits when already up to date.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Smthbig/gitcli/main/install.sh | bash

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Smthbig/gitcli/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Commands

• Primary command: git-genius
• Project/repo name: gitcli (this repository)

If you prefer gitcli as command, add an alias:

echo "alias gitcli='git-genius'" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

In-App "Update" Actions

Git Genius has two update paths inside the app:

• Tools -> Setup / Reconfigure
  • Re-runs complete setup and updates branch/remote/token/workdir settings
• Tools -> Create / Link GitHub Repository
  • Creates or relinks GitHub repository and updates remote URL

Interface Map

Main Menu
1) Daily Git Operations
2) Branch / Remote
3) Stash & Undo
4) Tools
5) Help / About
6) Exit

Daily Git Operations
1) Push changes (commit + push)
2) Pull changes
3) Smart Pull (auto-stash + pull)
4) Fetch all remotes
5) Git status
6) Back

Tools
1) Setup / Reconfigure
2) Create / Link GitHub Repository
3) Change Project Directory
4) Doctor (health check)
5) Back

Build From Source

Requirements:

• Go 1.21+
• Git installed

Build:

go fmt ./...
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o git-genius ./cmd/genius
./git-genius

Project Design (Codebase Overview)

Your project is modular and cleanly separated by responsibility:

• cmd/genius/main.go
  • Entry point, runtime safety env setup, app bootstrap
• internal/menu
  • Top-level interactive navigation and section routing
• internal/setup
  • First-time setup, reconfiguration, directory changes, GitHub repo linking
• internal/gitops
  • Daily operations: push/pull/fetch/smart pull/branch/remote/stash/undo
• internal/doctor
  • System and repository diagnostics
• internal/system
  • Git command execution, environment checks, runtime helpers
• internal/github
  • Token persistence and GitHub API interactions
• internal/config
  • Per-repo config at <repo>/.git/.genius/config.json
  • Global active-project state at ~/.git-genius/state.json for multi-repo switching
• internal/ui
  • Terminal prompts, confirmations, rendering, help strings

Design strengths:

• Clear separation between UI flow and Git/system logic
• Safe defaults for first-run and restricted environments
• Config-driven operations across multiple working directories
• Good extensibility for future sections/features

Roadmap Ideas

• Commit history viewer and better log UX
• Rich diff summaries for staged/unstaged changes
• Non-interactive flags for scripting/automation mode
• Optional shell autocompletion for command shortcuts

License

MIT License.

Note

Git Genius is a helper layer on top of Git. It improves flow and safety, but understanding core Git concepts is still important.