Installation

Install GitComet on macOS, Windows, or Linux using the supported distribution channel for your platform.

Install GitComet with a package manager or download a release for your operating system and processor. Desktop builds are available for x86-64 and ARM64 on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Requirements

git 2.50 or newer must be installed on your system.
The desktop app needs a graphical session. Linux supports Wayland, X11, and WSLg.

Check your Git version in a terminal:

git --version

Settings → Git executable shows the version and executable detected by GitComet. Select System PATH, or choose Custom executable and browse to your preferred Git executable. This is useful when the desktop app and your terminal find different Git installations.

Supported platforms

Platform	Installation options
macOS	Homebrew or a disk image; macOS 13 Ventura or newer.
Windows	Microsoft Store, signed MSI installer, or portable ZIP.
Linux	apt, AUR, GURU, Nix, Homebrew, AppImage, `.deb`, or release tarball.

GitHub Releases

You can also download the latest prebuilt binaries and installers from GitHub Releases:

GitComet releases

Build from Source

Building from source is a universal installation path when you want the latest development version, need a local build, or your platform is not covered by the packaged install methods above.

Install Rust at the version required by the checkout's Cargo.toml, plus your platform's native build tools:

Linux: a C/C++ toolchain, pkg-config, and the XCB and XKB development libraries. On Debian/Ubuntu, install build-essential pkg-config libxcb1-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev.
macOS: Xcode and the Metal development tools needed by the UI renderer.
Windows: Visual Studio 2022 or Build Tools with Desktop development with C++, MSVC, and the Windows 10/11 SDK. A runtime redistributable alone is not sufficient to compile the app.

git clone https://github.com/Auto-Explore/GitComet.git
cd GitComet
cargo build --release -p gitcomet --features ui-gpui,gix
cargo run --release -p gitcomet --features ui-gpui,gix -- /path/to/repo

The desktop build needs both the UI and Git backend features shown above. For the current contributor setup, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Installation File Locations

Default Path of GitComet's Settings Directory

GitComet stores its session, settings and user themes in a per-user application data directory, created on first launch.

Platform	Path
Linux	`$XDG_DATA_HOME/gitcomet` (falls back to `~/.local/share/gitcomet`)
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/gitcomet`
Windows	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\gitcomet` (falls back to `%APPDATA%\gitcomet`)

Custom themes are read from a themes folder inside that directory — see Custom Themes.

Crash logs have a separate location; see Crash Reports.