Git integration¶
Hive treats git as a first-class workspace signal. Three surfaces:
- Status pill in the workspace bar — branch, dirty count, ahead/behind.
- Git pane on the right rail — per-file status (staged / changed / untracked).
- Built-in git tools — agents can call
git_status,git_diff,git_log,git_show,git_commit.
Status pill¶
The pill shows:
- The current branch name (or "detached" / "no git" as appropriate).
- A warm-tinted badge with the dirty count (modified + untracked + staged) when non-zero.
- Up / down arrows + counts for ahead/behind.
Click the pill to refresh. Hive doesn't poll git automatically —
running git status constantly would be wasteful — but every chat
mutation refreshes the snapshot, and you can click any time.
Per-file pane¶
Open the Git pane (📈 icon on the right rail). Three groups:
- Staged — files in the index, ready to commit.
- Changed — modified or untracked-tracked files not yet staged.
- Untracked — files git doesn't know about.
Each row shows the file path, the change kind (M / A / D /
R / ? / U), and a tint by kind. Click the refresh button on
the pane header to re-run git status --porcelain=v1.
Built-in tools for agents¶
The default tool registry includes five git tools. The LLM sees them
with proper JSON schemas; the runtime synthesizes the right
git <subcommand> invocation when called.
| Tool | Effect | Approval |
|---|---|---|
git_status |
git status --short --branch |
no |
git_diff |
git diff [--staged] [-- <path>] |
no |
git_log |
git log --oneline -n <limit> |
no |
git_show |
git show <ref> (default HEAD) |
no |
git_commit |
git commit -m <message> |
yes |
The read-only tools (status / diff / log / show) bypass consent.
Anything that writes history — git_commit — requires approval.
Other write operations (push, branch, merge, rebase, reset, tag)
are NOT exposed as built-ins; agents that want them call
run_workspace_command and the user approves the specific command.
This is intentional — git push to a public remote is high-stakes;
we'd rather make the user read the exact command line than ship a
schema for it.
Future¶
- A "Stage selected files" affordance from the Git pane.
- Inline diff viewer in the right rail's Files mode.
- Per-hunk staging (the JJ-style "select these chunks" interaction).
- Git LFS / git-annex awareness.
None of these are blockers — run_workspace_command already lets an
agent do anything git can do, with user approval per command.