Diff & Repo Watcher

dot git-diff

A two-pane repo watcher across every managed repository: public and private dotfiles, the notes vault, Omarchy repos (when enabled), and schedule-gated activity repos from dot-git.yml. The Changed pane lists repos with uncommitted changes or non-zero ahead/behind counts against their upstream; Other lists the rest.

dot git-diff                # interactive TUI (alias: dot diff)
dot git-diff --raw          # text summary of repos with changes
dot git-diff --bar-json     # JSON for status bars and shell modules
dot git-diff --list-changed # changed repos as name|path rows
dot git-diff --list-all     # all tracked repos as name|path rows
dot git-diff --no-fetch     # skip upstream fetches; use local refs only
dot git-diff --tab other    # open with the Other pane focused

The TUI polls every ten seconds and loads Waybar cache on startup for a fast first paint. dot git-log reuses the same tracked repo list.

TUI layout

Pane	Contents
Changed	Repos with dirty worktrees or ahead/behind upstream
Other	Tracked repos with a clean worktree and no ahead/behind drift

The status bar shows when the last poll ran, how many repos changed, and how many have a stale .git/index.lock file. Repos with a lock file show a lock icon in the list.

Keyboard

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Navigate the active pane
Tab	Switch between Changed and Other
Enter	Open lazygit in the selected repo (suspends the TUI)
e	Open the repo in your default editor
E	Open the repo in your visual editor
o	Open an interactive OpenCode session
O	Open an OpenCode plan session
t	Open a terminal in the repo directory
w	Open the repo on GitHub in the browser
x	Remove a stale .git/index.lock from the selected repo
r	Refresh immediately
Esc / Backspace	Return to the main menu

Repo pulls and fetches are not available from this view; use dot update or work inside the repo directly.

Index locks

Status scans run git --no-optional-locks status so background polling does not refresh the index or compete with an in-flight rebase, merge, or other index-writing operation. That keeps bar modules and the TUI from creating or waiting on .git/index.lock during normal reads.

When a crashed git process leaves a stale lock behind, the repo appears with a lock indicator. Press x on the selected repo to remove the lock file and trigger a refresh. Only remove a lock when no git command is actively running in that repository.

Upstream fetches

When a repo has an upstream configured, dot git-diff fetches the tracking branch before computing ahead/behind counts. Fetches are TTL-cached (default five minutes, controlled by DOT_FETCH_TTL_SECONDS). Pass --no-fetch to skip network fetches and rely on local tracking refs.

Status bar module

A status bar module polls dot git-diff --bar-json through its own short-lived cache; left click opens the TUI and right click refreshes the cache. See Bar Integrations for the shared JSON contract.

Configuration

Which repos appear and whether Omarchy repos are included is controlled by the private dot-git.yml config and DOT_INCLUDE_OMARCHY_DIFF_REPOS. See Private Git Config and Environment Variables.