rit

rit is a Rust implementation of Git focused on compatibility, readable internals, safe repository writes, and a simple public API.

The name means Rust + Git. rit is not a wrapper around the git executable: runtime command implementations must read and write Git repository formats directly. The system git binary is used only as a reference implementation for documentation, compatibility tests, and benchmarks.

Goals

• Compatibility: Stay compatible with existing Git repositories wherever behavior is externally observable.
• Approachability: Keep the internal code approachable for beginner-to-intermediate Rust developers.
• Simplicity & Safety: Expose a straightforward Rust API, a familiar CLI, and prefer safe, explicit repository writes using lock files and atomic replaces.
• Performance: Fast execution powered by Rust and optional acceleration layers like indexdb.
• Advanced Features: Grow advanced features natively: LFS, Xet, auth, sparse checkout, partial clone, semantic diff, policy checks, VFS, and universal undo (Operation Journal).
• Single Binary: Ship as a single binary by default, with feature-gated minimal and full builds.

Current Status & Features

rit is rapidly evolving from a local Git engine into a next-generation VCS. Current capabilities include:

• Core Git Engine: Loose/packed object read/write, index v2 read/write, refs, tags, and revision resolution.
• Local Operations: add, commit, branch, checkout, switch, restore, reset, merge, cherry-pick, rebase, stash.
• Information & Diff: status, diff (with rename/copy detection), log, show, ls-files, ls-tree.
• Advanced Capabilities:
  • IndexDB: Optional SQLite auxiliary index for accelerating history queries and operations.
  • Operation Journal & Undo: Universal undo for local state changes using .git/rit/ops.log.
  • Explainable Git: status --explain, ignore explain, pathspec explain, merge explain.
  • Semantic Diff: AST-aware diffing for Rust, TypeScript, and Python.
  • Large Files: Native LFS and Xet pointer parsing and batch APIs.
  • Auth: Extensible credential helpers, SSH agent integration, and OS keychain adapters.
  • Maintenance: doctor and repair for repository health checks.

(For the full list of implemented CLI commands, refer to the source or run rit help)

Future Vision (Killer Features)

• Time Machine: Visual, timeline-based exploration and recovery of repository state.
• Semantic Rebase & Merge: AST-aware conflict resolution and logical change tracking.
• Zero-Config Large Repo (Smart VFS): Instant cloning and on-demand file materialization for 100GB+ repositories.
• Impact Analysis CI Helper: Intelligent change-impact detection to optimize CI pipelines.
• Policy-as-Code: Built-in compliance checks (secret scanning, file size limits, style enforcement).

Repository Layout

crates/
  rit-cli/       CLI entry point and command formatting
  rit-core/      Git data models, repository operations, and optional
                 `indexdb` feature-gated support
  rit-testkit/   Git-vs-rit compatibility harness

docs/
  compatibility.md        Current Git compatibility baseline
  implementation-notes.md Command notes, supported options, known gaps
  milestones.md           Day-to-day milestone tracker
  roadmap.md              Product-level roadmap
ANALIST.md                In-depth architecture analysis and feature proposals

Build And Test

Use stable Rust with the workspace commands below:

cargo fmt --all
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace

Continuous Integration

The full compatibility test suite is currently pinned to the checked Windows Git baseline recorded in docs/compatibility.md, so CI runs formatting, clippy, and cargo test --workspace on windows-latest.

CI runs for pull requests and for pushes to feature branches as well as the default branch, so branch pushes can be used to verify milestone work before a PR is opened.

Linux and macOS are still guarded in CI through the release-build matrix for both rit-min and rit-full. Expanding the full test matrix to Linux and macOS is tracked as a compatibility-baseline task once platform-specific Git output and file-mode differences are normalized.

Release Builds

rit-min is the default single-binary release profile:

cargo build -p rit-cli --release --locked

rit-full enables the optional model and adapter features currently intended for full releases:

cargo build -p rit-cli --release --locked --features rit-core/large-files,rit-core/semantic-json,rit-core/semantic-rust,rit-core/semantic-typescript,rit-core/semantic-python,rit-core/vfs

License

This workspace is licensed under MIT.