Terminal Git Tools Versus GitHub Desktop | Generated by AI
Question: The file viewer in GitHub Desktop is great, right? You can directly navigate to files when checking them?
Answer:
GitHub Desktop’s file viewer is decent but honestly pretty limited compared to what you probably want. Here’s the real breakdown:
What GitHub Desktop does well:
- Side-by-side or unified diff view for changed files
- Click a file in the changed files list → jump to its diff
- Syntax highlighting on diffs
Where it falls short:
- You’re only seeing diffs, not the full file in context
- No search across files
- No tree navigation for the full repo
- Slow for large changesets
Better alternatives for your workflow (terminal-first):
# See all changed files
git status
# Diff a specific file
git diff path/to/file.py
# Open changed files directly in your editor
git diff --name-only | xargs code # VSCode
git diff --name-only | xargs nvim # neovim
# Interactive diff browser (best CLI option)
git diff | delta # https://github.com/dandavison/delta
git diff | tig # ncurses git browser
delta is the biggest upgrade — it gives you syntax-highlighted, side-by-side diffs right in the terminal, line numbers, and even hyperlinks to files. Install:
brew install git-delta
# ~/.gitconfig
[core]
pager = delta
[delta]
side-by-side = true
navigate = true
line-numbers = true
tig gives you a full ncurses TUI for browsing commits, diffs, file trees — closer to what GitHub Desktop offers but in terminal.
Given you’re terminal-first on M2, delta + tig will beat GitHub Desktop’s file view every time. GitHub Desktop is mostly useful for people who avoid the terminal — not your case.