<img alt="Isomorphic Git logo" src="https://github.com/isomorphic-git/isomorphic-git/blob/main/.github/images/isomorphic-git-light.svg?raw=true" height="150" />

isomorphic-git

isomorphic-git is a pure JavaScript reimplementation of git that works in both Node.js and browser JavaScript environments. It can read and write to git repositories, fetch from and push to git remotes (such as GitHub), all without any native C++ module dependencies.

Goals

Isomorphic-git aims for 100% interoperability with the canonical git implementation. This means it does all its operations by modifying files in a ".git" directory just like the git you are used to. The included isogit CLI can operate on git repositories on your desktop or server.

This library aims to be a complete solution with no assembly required. The API has been designed with modern tools like Rollup and Webpack in mind. By providing functionality as individual functions, code bundlers can produce smaller bundles by including only the functions your application uses.

The project includes type definitions so you can enjoy static type-checking and intelligent code completion in editors like VS Code and CodeSandbox.

Project status

The original author of the project (Billie Hilton) left the project, but the project is still maintained by two volunteers:

• @jcubic (most active)
• @mojavelinux

But they don't write much code, mainly do code review and try to answer to issues and on Gitter, they just don't want the project to die. So you can say that this project is community driven (as jcubic always reply to issues). Which means that if you want a feature to be implemented you need to do this yourself or find someone that is willing to write the code for you. The project have some money on OpenCollective and we can spend it on some development, if you find someone that is willing to code in exchange to some bucks (it may be you), but we don't have a lot so don't expect to have full sallary.

If you want to help this project you're more than welcome to do so.

Supported Environments

The following environments are tested in CI and will continue to be supported until the next breaking version:

Node 10

Chrome 79

Edge 79

Firefox 72

Safari 13

Android 10

iOS 13

Upgrading from version 0.x to version 1.x?

See the full Release Notes on GitHub and the release Blog Post.

Install

You can install it from npm:

npm install --save isomorphic-git

Getting Started

The "isomorphic" in isomorphic-git means that the same code runs in either the server or the browser. That's tricky to do since git uses the file system and makes HTTP requests. Browsers don't have an fs module. And node and browsers have different APIs for making HTTP requests!

So rather than relying on the fs and http modules, isomorphic-git lets you bring your own file system and HTTP client.

If you're using isomorphic-git in node, you use the native fs module and the provided node HTTP client.

// node.js example
const path = require('path')
const git = require('isomorphic-git')
const http = require('isomorphic-git/http/node')
const fs = require('fs')

const dir = path.join(process.cwd(), 'test-clone')
git.clone({ fs, http, dir, url: 'https://github.com/isomorphic-git/lightning-fs' }).then(console.log)

If you're using isomorphic-git in the browser, you'll need something that emulates the fs API. The easiest to setup and most performant library is LightningFS which is written and maintained by the same author and is part of the isomorphic-git suite.

⚠️ LightningFS may apply file operations out of order, which can lead to repository corruption if the process crashes. You can mitigate this by calling fs.flush() after Git operations.

If LightningFS doesn't meet your requirements, isomorphic-git should also work with ZenFS and Filer. Instead of isomorphic-git/http/node this time import isomorphic-git/http/web:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@isomorphic-git/lightning-fs"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/isomorphic-git"></script>
<script type="module">
import http from 'https://unpkg.com/isomorphic-git@beta/http/web/index.js'
const fs = new LightningFS('fs')

const dir = '/test-clone'
git.clone({ fs, http, dir, url: 'https://github.com/isomorphic-git/lightning-fs', corsProxy: 'https://cors.isomorphic-git.org' }).then(console.log)
</script>

If you're using ES module syntax, you can use either the default import for convenience, or named imports to benefit from tree-shaking if you are using a bundler:

import git from 'isomorphic-git'
// or
import * as git from 'isomorphic-git'
// or
import {plugins, clone, commit, push} from 'isomorphic-git'

View the full Getting Started guide on the docs website.

Then check out the Useful Snippets page, which includes even more sample code written by the community!

CORS support

Unfortunately, due to the same-origin policy by default isomorphic-git can only clone from the same origin as the webpage it is running on. This is terribly inconvenient, as it means for all practical purposes cloning and pushing repos must be done through a proxy.

For this purpose, @isomorphic-git/cors-proxy exists; which you can clone it or npm install it. Alternatively, use CloudFlare workers, which can be setup without leaving the browser (instructions).

For testing or small projects, you can also use https://cors.isomorphic-git.org - a free proxy sponsored by Clever Cloud.

We hope to get CORS headers added to all the major Git hosting platforms eventually, and will list the progress made here:

It is literally just two lines of code to add the CORS headers!! Easy stuff. Surely it will happen.

isogit CLI

Isomorphic-git comes with a simple CLI tool, named isogit because isomorphic-git is a lot to type. It is really just a thin shell that translates command line arguments into the equivalent JS API commands. So you should be able to run any current or future isomorphic-git commands using the CLI.

It always starts with an the assumption that the current working directory is a git root. E.g. { dir: '.' }.

It uses minimisted to parse command line options and will print out the equivalent JS command and pretty-print the output JSON.

The CLI is more of a lark for quickly testing isomorphic-git and isn't really meant as a git CLI replacement.

Supported Git commands

This project follows semantic versioning, so we may continue to make changes to the API but they will always be backwards compatible unless there is a major version bump.

commands

• abortMerge
• add
• addNote
• addRemote
• annotatedTag
• branch
• checkout
• clone
• commit
• currentBranch
• deleteBranch
• deleteRef
• deleteRemote
• deleteTag
• expandOid
• expandRef
• fastForward
• fetch
• findMergeBase
• findRoot
• getConfig
• getConfigAll
• getRemoteInfo
• getRemoteInfo2
• hashBlob
• indexPack
• init
• isDescendent
• isIgnored
• listBranches
• listFiles
• listNotes
• listRefs
• listRemotes
• listServerRefs
• listTags
• log
• merge
• packObjects
• pull
• push
• readBlob
• readCommit
• readNote
• [readObject](htt