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Whisper-Git User Needs

Captured: February 2026 (from initial design sessions)

Core Information Needs (Priority Order)

  1. What does the recent commit graph look like?

    • Where are branches and tags?
    • What's the topology of recent work?

  2. What are my working directories, and how are they dirty?

    • Submodule status at a glance
    • Worktree status at a glance

  3. What am I working on committing right now?

    • Staged vs unstaged files
    • Current commit message draft

Key Actions

  • Staging/unstaging files
  • Committing
  • Pushing to one or more remotes
  • Fetching
  • Coordinating merges and rebases
  • Inspecting changes from individual commits

Design Constraints

Constraint Rationale
Mouse-first, vim-optional "Mouse and scroll should be all that is needed to navigate and control"
Rich Vulkan GUI Not a CLI/TUI - take advantage of GPU rendering
Multiple repositories in parallel "See at a glance what the various submodules are doing"
Primary + secondary repo model One repo as primary focus, secondary repos can be focused when needed
Information-dense Maximize useful information without wasting screen space

Visual Requirements

Commit Size Indication

Small commits should be visually distinct from large commits. Show +N/-M line counts inline.

LLM-Generated Descriptions

Use a cheap LLM (Claude Haiku or local model) to generate abbreviated descriptions of changesets. Each working tree or dirty directory can get a quick tagline explaining the changes.

Technology Decisions

  • Vulkano for rendering (custom pipeline, no egui)
  • Custom font/widget system (no external UI framework)
  • git2-rs for git operations
  • Native-only (no WASM compatibility needed)

Feature Priorities

Top Priority (Lesser-Known Git Features)

  • Worktrees — sidebar section with Jump to Branch, Remove, Open Terminal (partial)
  • Submodules — sidebar section with Update, Delete, Open Terminal (partial)
  • Next: Deeper worktree/submodule interaction (see design work ahead)

Standard Features (All Shipped)

  • Commit graph visualization (topology, time-based spacing, pills, search)
  • Branch/tag management (create, delete, checkout, merge, rebase, cherry-pick)
  • Staging workflow (file/hunk staging, commit, amend, revert, reset)
  • Push/pull/fetch operations (async with toast notifications)
  • Stash management (push/pop/apply/drop via keyboard and sidebar)

Deferred

  • Merge conflict resolution
  • Interactive rebase
  • Pull request integration
  • LLM-generated commit messages
  • Command palette