I’m building GOT — a smarter companion for Git (and no, it’s not a replacement)
Source: Dev.to
I’ve spent years loving Git and simultaneously wanting to throw my laptop out the window because of it. We all know the feeling:
$ git status
# panic
$ git reset --hard HEAD~1
# pray
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Exit fullscreen modeGit is an absolute beast at what it does — distributed version control, cryptographic integrity, lightning-fast branching, offline workflows. After nearly two decades, it still crushes those fundamentals.
But here’s the thing: Git understands files. I think in intentions, architecture, decisions, and context.
Git stores what changed. It doesn’t store why. Git gives me merge conflicts on lines. It doesn’t see that I refactored validation and you added logging — no real conflict at all.
And modern development? It’s scattered across GitHub, Jira, Slack, Confluence, and a dozen other tools, all orbiting around a repository that itself knows nothing about them.
So a while back I had one of those late‑night “what if…” moments. What if we could keep everything Git excels at, but layer on semantic understanding, knowledge management, and a developer experience that actually feels human?
That’s when I started building GOT — an open‑source companion that turns your repository into a living engineering knowledge system, while staying 100% Git‑compatible.
🧠 What GOT adds to Git
🧩 Logical Workspaces
Imagine being able to group files, branches, decisions, and notes into a workspace like “OAuth migration” or “Payment refactor”. Not tied to Git worktrees or branches — just a clean, queryable view of your current effort.
got workspace create auth
got workspace add-file auth auth/*
got workspace add-branch auth feature/jwt
got workspace show auth
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Exit fullscreen mode🔗 Knowledge Graph
Commits linked to architecture decisions, design discussions, issues, and AI‑generated summaries.
git log tells you when. GOT will tell you why, and help you onboard new teammates without reading a novel.
🚌 Event Bus Architecture
Every GOT component talks through a central event bus (think RepositoryOpened, WorkspaceUpdated, CommitAmended). This makes the tool insanely modular, and paves the way for a real plugin system where extensions don’t become spaghetti.
🔮 Future: Semantic Merge & AI‑Assisted Conflict Resolution
I’m not there yet, but the vision includes an engine that understands code structure — functions, classes, APIs — and can suggest conflict resolutions with confidence scores. Developer hours saved: millions.
🛠️ Current state & roadmap
I’m building GOT in the open, with a local‑first, offline‑first philosophy. Right now the core pieces are coming together:
✅ Git adapter & branch management
✅ Commit wizard & graph engine
✅ Health check & repository inspection
🚧 Workspace Engine (landing next)
🧭 Event Bus
🧠 Knowledge Engine
🔌 Plugin runtime v2
- 🌐 GitHub / GitLab integrations (only after the local experience is rock‑solid)
You can peek at the code, play with the early CLI, and — if you’re as passionate about fixing developer friction as I am — contribute.
👉 Repo: https://github.com/supunhg/got
Why “GOT”?
Honestly? I wanted a name that’s short, memorable, and a little playful. It stands for “Git Operations Toolkit,” but also for that moment when you’ve got everything under control — your code, your context, your decisions — all in one place.
Let’s build the missing half of Git together
If you’ve ever screamed at a merge conflict that wasn’t a conflict, or wished your repo could explain itself to a new team member, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Stars, issues, pull requests, and wild ideas are all welcome. Let’s make version control not just about storing code, but about understanding it.
What’s the one Git pain you’d fix with a magic wand? Drop a comment — I might just build it into GOT.
This project is fresh out of the oven, built with Go, SQLite, and a ton of coffee. Stay tuned for updates, and follow me here on Dev.to if you’re into developer tooling, DX, and rethinking the tools we use every day.