Gitkeen

The desktop app

Gitkeen runs as a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, built with Tauri. To install it, see Installing Gitkeen. It has the same window and the same Git backend as the browser version. The backend runs as a separate program inside the app. It listens on this computer only, and it answers only the app, which proves itself with a secret chosen at every start.

What is different in the app

  1. The welcome screen has a Choose folder… button.
  2. Patches and bundles are saved through the usual save dialog.
  3. Links to GitHub open in your browser.
  4. On macOS and Linux, the app reads PATH, GITHUB_TOKEN and the AI settings from your login shell when it starts, so it finds git-lfs, gh and your keys even when you open it from the Finder or a menu.
  5. It checks for a new version when it starts, and offers to update itself. Check for updates in the command palette checks at any time.

Building the app yourself

The release builds are made by GitHub Actions for every system (see Development). To build the app on your own computer, you need Rust (from rustup.rs) and, on a Mac, the Xcode command line tools.

  1. Updates are signed, so a build needs the signing key. Run export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY="$(cat ~/.tauri/gitkeen.key)".
  2. Run npm run desktop:build.
  3. Wait for the first build. It takes a few minutes and needs about 3 GB of free disk space for src-tauri/target, which you can delete afterwards.
  4. Find the app in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:
FileSize
macos/Gitkeen.appAbout 120 MB, most of it the Node.js runtime the backend needs.
dmg/Gitkeen_0.1.0_aarch64.dmgAbout 39 MB, for giving the app to someone else.
macos/Gitkeen.app.tar.gz and .sigThe update archive and its signature, which the release attaches for the updater.

npm run desktop:dev runs the app in development mode.

Limits

  1. The app is not signed with an Apple Developer ID or a Windows certificate. macOS and Windows ask once before they open it. See Installing Gitkeen.
  2. On Linux, only the AppImage updates itself. The .deb package is updated by installing the new package.

Edit this page on GitHub