The generic, command-agnostic repl utility can be installed as a git external command, after which it can be used as a regular git subcommand:
$ git repl
"git %s" >> ls-files
...
"git %s" >> status --short
...
"git %s" >> diff
...
"git %s" >> add -p README.md
...
"git %s" >> commit -m 'fix typo in README'
...
"git %s" >> ^D
$ _As illustrated above, it provides a generic REPL environment that can be used to interact with git in a more interactive way than the regular git command-line tool allows.
git-repl is installed as a symlink to the generic repl command-line utility and therefore requires that repl is installed on your system first.
repl itself comes in two flavors: a Ruby version and a Go version, so you have the choice between the two, depending on which language runtime you prefer to have installed on your system; both versions are functionally equivalent.
First, install the latest version of the generic repl utility in a directory that is on your PATH; you can adjust REPL_INSTALL_DIR in the below instructions to match your shell environment.
Next, in the same directory on your PATH where repl is installed, create a symlink named git-repl to the repl utility; that way you can run git repl without any changes to your system's $PATH.
Create git-repl as a symlink to repl:
REPL_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin
ln -s "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl" "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/git-repl"
You can now run git repl in the same way you invoke any other git subcommand.
repl.rb is the Ruby version of the repl utility, which requires Ruby to be installed on your system, but has no other external dependencies (that is: it only uses classes and modules from Ruby's standard library).
REPL_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin
curl -s -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pvdb/repl/main/repl.rb
mv ./repl.rb "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl"
chmod 755 "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl"
ln -s "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl" "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/git-repl"
Finally, ensure and check that git-repl is executable
git-repl --version
With rlwrap installed, and for the Ruby version of repl this will be something like:
repl 1.0.0 (rlwrap 0.46.1, ruby 3.3.6)
repl.go is the Go version of the repl utility, which requires Go to be installed on your system, but has no other external dependencies (that is: it only uses packages from Go's standard library).
REPL_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin
curl -s -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pvdb/repl/main/repl.go
go build -o "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl" repl.go
rm repl.go
chmod 755 "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl"
ln -s "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/repl" "${REPL_INSTALL_DIR}/git-repl"
Finally, ensure and check that git-repl is executable
git-repl --version
With rlwrap installed, and for the Go version of repl this will be something like:
repl 1.0.0 (rlwrap 0.46.1, go1.23.5)
Once installed, a git REPL can be launched using git repl (or less commonly using git-repl instead).
Running git repl [args] is equivalent to running repl git [args], which means that git is the default command that is invoked in the REPL environment.
It also means that it supports all the same command-line options as the repl utility itself, which can be used to customize the REPL environment to your liking
Use git-repl --help or else go to the full documentation of the repl utility for more information.
The repl utility wraps itself in rlwrap if it is installed on your system.
rlwrap is a GNU readline wrapper that provides command history and line editing capabilities for any command-line tool that lacks these features.
Coming soon
git --list-cmds="main,alias,others" > ${HOME}/.repl/gitThe default repl completion directory is ${HOME}/.repl/ but can be overridden by setting the REPL_COMPLETION_DIR environment variable (in your shell environment or else in $(HOME)/.replrc).