Rebased is an open-source git client built using the IntelliJ platform. Designed as a remake of JetBrains' short-lived git client, Rebased offers developers a lightweight and distraction-free environment for managing Git repositories. By removing unnecessary plugins and focusing solely on Git integration, it provides a streamlined experience while retaining familiar UI elements from JetBrains IDEs.
Key Features:
Rebased supports core Git operations such as commits, branches, merges, and diffs with a focus on simplicity and efficiency. It includes features like a unified diff viewer, commit history navigation, and seamless integration with local and remote repositories. The tool is also cross-platform, supporting Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for developers familiar with JetBrains IDEs who seek a focused Git client without the overhead of a full-featured IDE. Rebased provides a consistent UI/UX across platforms while maintaining compatibility with common Git workflows. It can be installed via winget, making it easy to get started on Windows systems.
README
Rebased
A git client based on the IntelliJ platform.
Rebased is an open-source remake of the short-lived jetbrains git client.
It's basically just a JetBrains IDE with all the bundled plugins removed except the git integration, with some additional UI tweaks.
Why?
See this youtrack issue for the many reasons people have been requesting this for almost a decade. At the time of writing, it's the #3 most upvoted open issue on YouTrack.
After copying Rebased.app to your Applications folder, you may see the following error message:
> "Rebased.app" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Bin.
This is Apple lying to you. Nothing is "damaged", it's just not code-signed with an Apple Developer certificate. To fix it, run the following command:
In addition to all the git-related features from IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, Rebased has some additional features which aren't available in any of the official JetBrains IDEs.
By default, the git log in Rebased is located in the main editor window, as the graph is typically the main focus of a git GUI client.
However, if you prefer it to be in the tool window at the bottom like in JetBrains IDEs, you can disable this behavior:
Go to Settings > Version Control > Log
Uncheck "Show the log in the editor window"
Option to disable the .idea directory
Unlike the .vscode directory, most of the config files generated by JetBrains IDEs are unfortunately not suitable to commit, as they often contain device-specific file paths that don't work if shared with other members of your team.
Rebased is intended to be used with a wider variety of projects, which means you're more likely to use it with repos that weren't intended to be opened in a JetBrains IDE. This means .idea config files aren't committed nor are they excluded in .gitignore. This results in Rebased generating unwanted config files most of the time.
To address this problem, Rebased allows you to disable the creation of the .idea directory in the project root:
Go to Settings > Appearance and Behavior > System Settings
Uncheck "Store project settings in the project root directory"
> [!NOTE]
> This does not disable project-level config. Instead, Rebased will store each project's config inside a single centralized .idea directory in the same place as the IDE's global settings.
Additional TextMate bundles
IntelliJ Community Edition includes syntax highlighting for many languages, even when their corresponding language plugin is not installed, thanks to the TextMate Bundles plugin.
Unfortunately however, syntax highlighting is only available for some languages in their respective paid plugins/IDEs.
One of the goals of Rebased is to prevent users from having to install bloated plugins when they only want basic editor/git functionality, so we ship some additional TextMate bundles that aren't present in IntelliJ:
> [!NOTE]
> This section is mostly unchanged from the upstream intellij-community repo, but with a few small tweaks to match the changes I've made to the build process.
Getting the Source Code
This section will guide you through getting the project sources and help avoid common issues in git config and other steps before opening it in the IDE.
Rebased is available from the GitHub repository.
The master (default) branch contains the source code which is periodically merged with upstream, however Rebased tracks upstream IntelliJ Community releases in separate release branches. Releases are always published from the latest release branch instead of the master branch.
Alternatively, follow the steps below in a terminal:
git clone https://github.com/detachhead/rebased.git
cd rebased
> [!TIP]
> - For faster download: If the complete repository history isn't needed, create shallow clone
> To download only the latest revision of the repository, add --depth 1 option after clone.
> - Cloning in IntelliJ IDEA also supports creating shallow clone.
Building Rebased
These instructions will help you build Rebased from source code, which is based on the IntelliJ community edition.
IntelliJ IDEA '2023.2' or newer is required.
> [!IMPORTANT]
>
> IntelliJ IDEA project is currently being migrated to the Bazel build system.
> The migration is still in progress, so you may encounter some rough edges or temporary issues along the way, mostly related to IDE integration.
> * Building the project using only IDE built-in capabilities is not supported anymore, so make sure the Bazel plugin is installed and enabled.
> * Known issue: some tests are not yet possible to be run with Bazel. In case of any issues, please depend on the tests.cmd script mentioned in the Running IntelliJ IDEA in CI/CD environment section.
Opening the Rebased Source Code in the IDE
Using the latest IntelliJ IDEA, click 'File | Open', select the `` directory.
If IntelliJ IDEA displays a message about a missing or out-of-date required plugin (e.g. Kotlin),
enable, upgrade, or install that plugin and restart IntelliJ IDEA.
Build Configuration Steps
JDK Setup
Use JetBrains Runtime 25 (without JCEF) to compile
IDE will prompt to download it on the first build
> [!IMPORTANT]
>
> JetBrains Runtime without JCEF is required. If jbr-25 SDK points to JCEF version, change it to the non-JCEF version:
> - Add idea.is.internal=true to idea.properties and restart the IDE.
> - Go to 'Project Structure | SDKs'
> - Click 'Browse' → 'Download...'
> - Select version 25 and vendor 'JetBrains Runtime'
> - To confirm if the JDK is correct, navigate to the SDK page with jbr-25 selected. Search for jcef, it should NOT yield a result.
Maven Configuration : If the Maven plugin is disabled, add the path variable "MAVEN_REPOSITORY" pointing to /.m2/repository directory.
Memory Settings
Ensure a minimum 8GB RAM on your computer.
With the minimum RAM, disable "Compile independent modules in parallel" in 'Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | Compiler'.
With notably higher available RAM, Increase "User-local heap size" to 3000.
Building the Rebased Application from Source
To build Rebased from source, choose 'Build | Build Project' from the main menu.
To build installation packages, run the installers.cmd script in `` directory. installers.cmd will work on both Windows and Unix systems.
Options to build installers are passed as system properties to installers.cmd command.
You may find the list of available properties in BuildOptions.kt
Pass --debug to suspend and wait for debugger at port 5005
Installer build examples:
# Build installers only for current operating system:
./installers.cmd -Dintellij.build.target.os=current
> [!TIP]
>
> The installers.cmd is used to run OpenSourceCommunityInstallersBuildTarget from the command line.
> You can also call it directly from IDEA, using run configuration Build Rebased Installers (current OS).
Dockerized Build Environment
To build installation packages inside a Docker container with preinstalled dependencies and tools, run the following command in `` directory (on Windows, use PowerShell):
> [!NOTE]
>
> Please remember to specify the --user "$(id -u)" argument for the container's user to match the host's user.
> This prevents issues with permissions for the checked-out repository, the build output, if any.
Running Rebased
To run the version of Rebased that was built from source, choose 'Run | Run' from the main menu. This will use the preconfigured run configuration Rebased.
To run tests on the build, apply these settings to the 'Run | Edit Configurations... | Templates | JUnit' configuration tab:
Working dir: /bin
VM options: -ea
Running Rebased in CI/CD environment
To run tests outside of IntelliJ IDEA, run the tests.cmd command in `` directory.tests.cmd can be used in both Windows and Unix systems.
Options to run tests are passed as system properties to tests.cmd command.
You may find the list of available properties in TestingOptions.kt
# Run a specific test:
./tests.cmd --module intellij.idea.community.main.tests --test com.intellij.util.ArrayUtilTest
to debug tests use: -Dintellij.build.test.debug.suspend=true -Dintellij.build.test.debug.port=5005
tests.cmd is used just to run CommunityRunTestsBuildTarget from the command line.
You can also call it directly from IDEA, see run configuration tests for an example.
Rebased