Complete reference for all keyboard shortcuts in Git Watchtower’s terminal UI.
| Key |
Action |
Up / k |
Move selection up |
Down / j |
Move selection down |
Enter |
Switch to selected branch |
/ |
Search/filter branches |
Esc |
Clear search / Close modal / Quit |
| Key |
Action |
v |
Preview selected branch (commits & files) |
h |
Show switch history |
u |
Undo last branch switch |
p |
Force pull current branch |
f |
Fetch all branches + refresh sparklines |
b |
Branch actions modal (see below) |
S |
Stash working directory changes |
d |
Clean up branches with deleted remotes |
o |
Open browser (static/web server) |
W |
Toggle web dashboard on/off |
Press b on any branch to open an interactive action modal. All actions are always visible — unavailable ones are grayed out with reasons (e.g., “Requires gh CLI”, “Run: gh auth login”).
| Key |
Action |
Requires |
b |
Open branch on GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket/Azure DevOps |
- |
c |
Open Claude Code session in browser |
Claude branch with session URL |
p |
Create PR (or view existing PR) |
gh or glab CLI |
d |
View PR diff on GitHub/GitLab |
Open PR |
a |
Approve pull request |
gh or glab CLI + open PR |
m |
Merge pull request (squash + delete branch) |
gh or glab CLI + open PR |
i |
Check CI status |
gh or glab CLI |
Esc |
Close modal |
- |
The modal opens instantly and loads PR info in the background. Results are cached per branch and invalidated when the branch receives new commits. The modal auto-detects:
- Claude Code branches (
claude/ prefix) and extracts session URLs from commit messages
- Git hosting platform from the remote URL (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps)
- Existing PRs and their review/CI status
- CLI tool availability — shows install/auth hints when
gh or glab isn’t set up
| Key |
Mode |
Action |
r |
Static site |
Force reload all browsers |
l |
Custom server command |
View server logs |
R |
Custom server command |
Restart dev server |
| Key |
Action |
s |
Toggle sound notifications |
i |
Show server/status info and session stats |
1-0 |
Set visible branch count (1-10) |
+ / - |
Increase/decrease visible branches |
| Key |
Action |
q |
Quit |
Ctrl+C |
Quit |
| Badge |
Meaning |
CURRENT |
Currently checked-out branch |
NEW |
Branch created since Watchtower started |
UPDATES |
Remote has new commits to pull |
DELETED |
Branch was deleted from remote |
NO-SERVER |
Running in branch-monitor-only mode |
SERVER CRASHED |
Dev server process crashed (custom server command mode) |
OFFLINE |
Network connectivity issues detected |
DETACHED HEAD |
Not on a branch (commit checkout) |
MERGE CONFLICT |
Auto-pull failed due to conflicts |