a git repository library manager

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Clone it. Stow it. Never lose it.

You clone repos to learn from them. Then they rot in ~/misc-stuff-2. gitstow turns them into a library: paste a URL, get an organized collection you can bulk-pull, tag, freeze, and grep. And your AI agents already know how to drive it.

$ pipx install gitstow

Star on GitHub ↗

MIT · Python 3.10+ · GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket / Codeberg

quick start

Sixty seconds to a stowed library.

One install, one onboard, and every repo you paste lands exactly where it belongs.

$ brew install pipx && pipx install gitstow

Already have pipx? pipx install gitstow alone does it.

$ gitstow onboard # optional first-run wizard, installs the Claude skill too

$ gitstow add anthropic/claude-code # shorthand or full URLs

$ gitstow pull # update everything, in parallel

$ gitstow ui # open the dashboard ↓

gitstow — demo

live capture: add, pull, status, done

gitstow ui

The tab you leave open.

A local-first browser dashboard, and the primary way to live with your library. Dirty state at a glance, one-click pulls, tags, freezes, and per-file diffs. It auto-refreshes every 30 seconds and never phones home: 127.0.0.1 only.

gitstow — Library

gitstow library.mgr · v0.2.6

LibraryWorkspacesSettings

Jul 21 — Dashboard

Your library.

44 repos across 2 workspaces, 41 in sync.

38 clean 03 local changes 02 behind 01 frozen

All workspaces ▾ Search repos, tags… Hide frozen ↻ Refresh ⟳ Fetch all + Add repo ↓ Pull all

№StatusRepositoryWorkspaceBranchRemote ΔTagsLast pullActions

01 clean anthropic/claude-code oss main — aitools 2h ago Pull⋯

02 behind facebook/react oss main ↓ 12 ui 3d ago ↓ Pull 12⋯

03 2 mod · 1 unt karpathy/nanoGPT oss master — ai 1d ago Pull⋯

04 ahead gitstow active main ↑ 2 active 5h ago Pull⋯

05 frozen torvalds/linux oss master — reference 3w ago Pull⋯

06 clean ziglang/zig oss master — lang 2h ago Pull⋯

auto-refresh 30s · click repo name → details · pull runs in place

live127.0.0.1:7853 Shutdown

local-first

Binds 127.0.0.1 only. Your repos, your machine, nobody else's business.

pull all, in parallel

One click updates the whole library with a per-repo summary. Frozen repos politely skipped.

per-file diffs

Click into any dirty repo: staged, unstaged, untracked, with colored line diffs.

ai integration

Your agents just… know.

Onboarding installs a Claude Code skill automatically. From then on, "add this repo" or "update my library" just works. No configuration, no prompt engineering, no ceremony.

Skill installs itself

Part of gitstow onboard, auto-updates on version bumps.

Zero token overhead

Skills cost nothing when inactive, unlike MCP tools that squat in context.

MCP for everything else

Cursor, Claude Desktop, and friends get a server via pip install gitstow[mcp]. Every command speaks --json.

claude code

› grab karpathy/nanoGPT and tag it ai

⏺ Using skill: gitstow

⏺ Bash(gitstow add karpathy/nanoGPT)

✓ cloned → ~/oss/karpathy/nanoGPT

⏺ Bash(gitstow repo tag karpathy/nanoGPT ai)

✓ tagged: ai

Stowed. It's in your oss workspace under karpathy/nanoGPT, tagged ai.

›

features

Everything a library needs.

⌂

Workspaces

Open-source library here, active projects there. Structured owner/repo layout or flat, per directory.

gitstow workspace add ~/oss --layout structured

⇣

Auto-organization

Paste URLs, get owner/repo folders. Concurrent clones, deduped, and a mismatched remote errors loudly.

gitstow add anthropic/claude-code facebook/react

⇊

Bulk operations

Pull, fetch, and status across everything in parallel. One bad repo never stops the rest.

gitstow pull --tag ai --exclude-tag stale

❄

Freeze & tags

Tag repos, filter every operation by tag, freeze the ones you want left alone.

gitstow repo freeze torvalds/linux

⎇

Any git host

GitHub shorthand, GitLab nested groups, Bitbucket, Codeberg. SSH or HTTPS, your call.

gitstow add https://gitlab.com/group/project

⌕

Search & exec

ripgrep across the whole library, or run any command in every repo. Filter by tag, glob, workspace.

gitstow search "def main" --glob "*.py"

⇄

Portable collections

Export your library as YAML, import it on a new machine. Your curation, reproducible.

gitstow collection export -o my-repos.yaml

❯

Shell sugar

fzf pickers, tab completion, and gs to cd into any repo. Muscle memory in three keystrokes.

eval "$(gitstow shell init)"

vs the field

The best of both. Then some.

ghq organizes but can't operate. gita operates but can't organize. gitstow does both, and brings a dashboard and your agents along.

capabilitygitstowghqgita

Auto-organize by owner/repo●●—

Bulk pull, fetch & status●—●

Workspaces (structured + flat)●——

Tags, freeze & filtered ops●—◐

Local browser dashboard●——

Claude Code skill + MCP server●——

JSON output on every command●—◐

● yes · ◐ partial · — no (ghq 3.5k★, gita 1.8k★, both great at what they do)