A desktop client built around one idea: lanes that never move. Branches stay in their column so the shape of your history holds still while you read it.
The tour
Stop the total at the last filled row
src/lib/totals.ts, src/lib/table.ts, src/lib/totals.spec.ts
Chapter one
One commit per row, and a branch that keeps its column from its first commit to its last. Right click to copy the files a commit touched, or select a range and copy the distinct union.
Chapter two
Tick the files, write the message, commit. Your hooks run and your signing key is used, because every write spawns the real git binary rather than reimplementing it.
Chapter three
Merges compare against the first parent, so lines are not shifted by a column the way a combined diff shifts them. Untracked files get a preview too.
Chapter four
Paste the names, pick a source and a destination, and every entry is resolved and classified before a single byte is written. Nothing is guessed.
Straight lanes
Most clients let lanes drift sideways as you scroll, so the picture changes while you are reading it. Switchyard assigns lanes across the whole walk in topological order, so a branch holds its position from the first commit to the last.
Published surveys of commit graph drawing put one commit per row and straight branches in tension: almost no client does both. Switchyard does, because the layout is solved once, outside the renderer.
No feature here is a wrapper that reimplements git. Each one shells out to the binary already on your PATH, with arguments passed as an array so nothing is ever handed to a shell to reinterpret.
Stage and unstage a file, a folder, a hunk or single lines, or everything at once. Amend the last commit, or undo it and keep the changes. Discarding always asks first and keeps a copy, so Undo puts the file back exactly as it was.
Ahead and behind counts sit on the button, with how long ago you last fetched, and it fetches by itself every 15 minutes. Progress shows as git works, and a download can be stopped. Force push uses a lease, never a bare force, so you cannot overwrite a colleague's work by accident.
Filter by subject, author or sha as you type, or search all of history: path: for the commits that touched a file or folder, text: for the ones that added or removed some text.
Create, switch, rename, track and delete branches, here or on the remote, from a right click. Switching with changes asks whether to bring them or leave them on the branch for later. Stash, pop and drop without remembering which verb git wants.
Right click a commit for its file list. Select several commits and get the distinct union, one file per line and comma separated, ready to paste into a release note or a ticket.
Conflicted files get a list of their own, each saying what kind of conflict it is. Click one to see the file with each conflict laid out as current and incoming, and take one side, the other, or both, conflict by conflict, or open the three pane merge editor. Every choice can be undone.
On GitHub, GitLab and Azure DevOps, self-hosted servers included: list, create, comment on, approve, check out and merge them, with a token of your own that is sent only to your service.
Commits, amends, merges, pulls, cherry-picks, resets and discards can be taken back from the message that follows, or with Ctrl+Z. Nothing already pushed is ever undone.
Right click any file for its history, followed through renames, or its blame, where each line leads to the commit that last changed it.
The words that changed are marked inside a changed line, code is coloured by its language, and a changed picture is shown before and after, side by side.
Pick two rows and see the combined file list with per-file status, without writing a range expression. Where a file changed on both sides you are asked whether to review the diff first or copy straight through.
Follows the system, or pin it. The canvas re-reads its palette on both routes, so the graph never paints one theme's ink on the other's ground.
Every feature from the first day. The trial starts the first time you open the app.
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₹149 / month
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The ones you reach for most. Everything else is a few letters away in the command palette. None of them need a modifier you cannot reach with one hand.
Paste a list of file names, pick a source and a destination, and Switchyard works out what is new, what already exists, and what is identical before it writes anything.
src/lib/invoice.model.ts,
src/lib/invoice-api.service.ts,
src/lib/invoice-list.component.tsFull paths, trailing commas, quotes and Windows backslashes all get normalised. A bare file name matching two files in the source is reported as ambiguous, never guessed. A path that would escape the destination root is refused.
Under the hood
Every read and every write runs the git binary on your PATH, with arguments as an array rather than a shell string. So hooks fire, credential helpers work, commits get signed, and a .gitattributes filter behaves exactly as it does in your terminal.
Lanes are assigned in one topological pass over a reserved-lane array. A commit releases its own lane before reserving its parents, which is what lets the first parent inherit the column and keeps the branch straight.
Painting covers the viewport, not the history, so per-frame cost is constant. The backing store is scaled to whole pixels rather than a fractional device ratio, which is what stops text going soft at 125 percent display scaling.
Context isolation on, node integration off, and a narrow bridge of named calls instead of a general channel. The page is served over a private scheme rather than file://, so module loading works without relaxing web security.
Worth reading before you download it, so nothing here surprises you later.
Roadmap
Lane solving, canvas painting, staging, committing, amending, undo, revert, discard, branches, stashes, fetch, pull, push with a lease, history search, light and dark themes.
Since the first releasePaste a file list, resolve every entry against the source, classify it, review the diff where it matters, then write. Refuses any path that would escape the destination root.
Since the first releaseA banner names the operation that stopped and how many files are left, and conflicted files get a list of their own. Take the current or incoming side for a whole file, settle each conflict in the file or in a three pane merge editor, then continue or abort. Every choice can be undone.
In 0.1.10, reworked in 0.1.20Stage or unstage one hunk, or pick single lines in a diff. The hunk is found again in a fresh diff before anything is applied, so a file that changed since is refused rather than guessed at.
In 0.1.10Reorder, reword, squash, fix up or drop commits in one dialog, written as a rebase todo so git does the work, and cherry pick commits onto your branch.
In 0.1.10See, create, comment on, approve, check out and merge pull requests on GitHub, GitLab and Azure DevOps. Take back a commit, a merge, a pull, a rewrite or a discard from the message that follows it. A file's history and blame, identities per folder or remote, and team settings for a repository.
In 0.1.12Fetch, pull and push show their progress and can be stopped while that is safe. A remote that wants a password or a passphrase asks in the window, and the repository on screen is fetched every 15 minutes so the counts stay true.
In 0.1.13 and 0.1.14Windows warns on first run because the installer is not code signed, and signing needs a certificate that costs money every year. Updates are already checked against each release's fingerprint; a signature would let Windows vouch for them too.
Not yet fundedQuestions
Every copy starts with a 30-day free trial of everything, with no account and no card. After that it is ₹149 a month in India or $2.99 elsewhere, or yearly for two months less. There is one plan, and nothing in the app is held back from it. See pricing.
If a plan ends, the app does not lock you out: it goes read-only, so every repository can still be read, and writes come back the moment it is renewed.
No. It uses the git already on your PATH. That is deliberate: your version, your config, your hooks, your credential helper and your signing key all keep working, and the app cannot drift out of step with the git you use in the terminal.
If git is missing the app says so plainly instead of failing halfway through an operation.
No. Every destructive operation sits behind a confirmation that names what will be lost. Force push uses --force-with-lease, so a push that would discard someone else's commits fails instead of succeeding.
Reading 1,052 commits from a real monorepo takes 683 ms, almost all of it waiting on git itself. Solving the lane layout for those commits takes about 1 ms.
Painting cost does not scale with history at all, because the canvas is sized to the window rather than to the number of rows.
Yes. Code signing needs a certificate that costs money every year, and there is no certificate yet. The warning is Windows telling you the truth: the binary is unsigned.
Yes, from version 0.1.10. It checks shortly after it starts and every few hours, downloads a new version in the background and checks it against the release's fingerprint. It installs when you press Restart to update, or the next time you quit. The banner offering an update the developer has marked as required cannot be dismissed. The release notes say what changed in each version.
Separately from updates, the developer has a safety switch that can make a faulty version read-only or stop it, so a release that goes wrong cannot keep doing damage while a fix is on its way. The next question says how it works.
Nothing about your code: no repository paths, file names, branch names, email address or machine name. To count installs, it sends a random id it made up the first time it ran, with its version and platform. To know your trial and your plan, it sends a one-way hash of your computer's id, and your licence key when you paste one. The privacy policy lists all of it.
It regularly reads a status file for notices, updates, and a safety switch the developer can use to make a faulty version read-only or stop it. The app obeys the switch only when it is signed with one of the developer's keys: one never leaves the developer's own machine, and one is held by the website, which uses it only for the developer, after they confirm with a fresh code sent to their email. A switch lasts only for a set time, a year at most, and it never touches your repositories or files.
Nothing jumps. The repository is watched for changes with a debounce, and a refresh re-solves the layout from scratch rather than appending rows, so the shape you are looking at stays consistent with the history behind it.
No. Switchyard was written from scratch. Published documentation and algorithm write-ups were read; no other client's source code was. Where a project inspired an idea, the idea was reimplemented rather than copied.
One installer for Windows. Every feature for 30 days, with no account and no card.
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Windows 10 and 11. Requires git on your PATH. The installer is
not code signed, so Windows will ask you to confirm on first run.