Programming

If you're already comfortable working in the shell, you should check out tig. It's not as fully featured as the other clients named here, but it's an excellent viewer nevertheless.

Github desktop is very functional, I use it all the time

Tower on Mac is excellent, tig in terminal is also very powerful once you read the help/man pages!

I actually like the tooling built into VS Code. Added the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension for the PRs, pretty happy with it all at the moment. Before that I like a specific older version of SourceTree that didn't forget your credentials.

If you have trouble remembering git commands for CLI have a look at the tool tldr:

https://man.archlinux.org/man/tldr.1.en

For example if you need to remember how to use the branch command you could look it up with

tldr git branch

which would give you an overview on the most popular use cases.

And in case you don't already know: You may want to use the history search tool of your shell by hitting CTRL-r and then for example typing branch. You'd get a list of past commands you have used containing branch that you can flip through by repeatedly hitting CTRL-r.

Github desktop is the only way I know how to clone my private repo. I do not understand how to clone my private repos through CLI.

I use various extensions for Visual Studio Code. They add a million features, but these are the ones I find most useful:

I prefer to view the current status of my checkout in the sidebar of my code editor than on the command line.

It's easier to view a diff of a file and decide whether to stage or rollback changes in a GUI. With most GUIs you can even select individual lines of code and revert or stage them.

I like how Commit and Push and Pull are a single "Commit & Sync" button in Visual Studio code. Similarly there's a simple "Sync" button in the status bar.

Speaking of the status bar - it also has a counter for commits that need to be pushed or pulled. And it tells you what branch you're currently on. And whether you have uncommitted changes. Handy.

I find the GUI equivalent of git log --graph is significantly easier to understand when the graph is drawn with nice vector lines instead of ASCII art.

Finally - I don't just use raw git, I also use extensions like pull requests, and I create branches for issue numbers. I have an extension that shows pull requests in Visual Studio Code and also shows issues assigned to me, with a one click "Start Working" button to create a branch named after the issue and change the issue status to In Progress. And when I'm finished working on it, there's a button for that too.

I use git fork on Mac, same reason, I don't remember all the commands. Also want to see the history visualization

I've used https://www.sublimemerge.com and https://www.sourcetreeapp.com but I think i prefer to just use my terminal most of the time...

Developing in a Windows environment, I generally prefer Git Extensions.
It doesn't distract the eye with unneeded fancy and is very close to a command line git experience but still allows me a better visual sense of the repository and branches.

Since I work in Linux and primarily code in languages like C and C++ (i.e. compiled langs), I work completely in the terminal, so I don't use any GUI. It's nice and I'm already there for my compiling so I might as well use it for git.

However, re remembering all the commands, there is a nifty website I found a while ago and bookmarked called Git Explorer where you basically choose from dropdowns of what you want to do and it gives you the command(s) for it.

I use sublime merge because I really like ST and want to further support the dev. I wish it had more integrations with github (and theoretically github alternatives), but I understand the reasoning not to. Before SM came out I just used the command line exclusively.

SourceTree when I was still a software engineer.

I'm a manager now, and I see people insisting on command line who have no idea what they're doing. Then don't! I think it's an awful attitude that real programmers use git command line, and GUIs are for babies. Please call out this attitude whenever you see it. Use tools that work for you. Git has a terrible user experience, let's face it.

While I do most actions with the git command or the git fugitive plugin from tpope, I will sometimes whip out lazygit for certain things I don’t do that often.

https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit

(GitKraken)[https://www.gitkraken.com/] is nice.

It is free "for solo developers working with local/public repos" (and free for all remaining cases, under (GitHub academic benefits)[https://education.github.com/]).

• 45% SourceTree
• 45% CLI
• 10% TortoiseGit

The repository I work in is huge, old, and the folder structures are wide and deep. It is normal to modify tens of files in almost as many folders for a single feature change.

SourceTree for managing staged files and committing.

CLI for pull, branch switching, and searching.

TortoiseGit for showing the log or blame of individual files and folders.

Git extensions, have been using it for years, and while the UI is not flashy, it gets the job done really really well.

I own sublime merge because it was cheap when I upgraded to ST4, but never use it. It's not bad or anything, but honestly the CLI is more convenient to use (and all the GUIs I've used have a lot of clicking involved). I don't know that you're going to find something better than the CLI, especially given your requirement ow "comfortable to use with only a keyboard".

I use GitHub Desktop for 95% of my git needs, terminal for the other 5%

Sourcetree

I mostly use the CLI, but I occasionally use fork when a GUI is needed

JetBrains have some quite extensive VC tooling built into their IDEs which I use almost exclusively. I used to do everything in the terminal, but I find it so much quicker and simpler to do it directly in the IDE.

I use TortoiseGit.

The log window gives me overview and almost every action I need. Committing, diffing, switching, rebasing, creating and deleting branches and tags, pushing, fetching, merging, view logs of files, blaming, filtering…

The log view is still much better than the VS Git log view. And due to it's visual GUI it's much better than CLI when going beyond just one branch or a low number of my own branches.

My office blocks git through the CLI/VS Code Tools but somehow GitHub desktop works. No idea why.

I use GitKraken, which is pretty great, but for a lot of day to day stuff I just end up using the CLI

I use SourceTree regularly, but when shit hits the fan, I always fall back to the terminal.

Would it work for you if you created git aliases for commands you can't remember?

KDE has a relatively new git tool named Kommit: https://apps.kde.org/de/kommit