Quick Start

Installation

# Global install (recommended)
npm install -g git-watchtower

# Or run directly with npx
npx git-watchtower

Start Monitoring

# Navigate to any git repository
cd your-project

# Start Git Watchtower
git-watchtower

On first run, you’ll be guided through a configuration wizard to set your preferred server mode, port, and notification preferences.

Usage

# Run with default settings (or saved config)
git-watchtower

# Run without dev server (branch monitoring only)
git-watchtower --no-server

# Launch with web dashboard
git-watchtower --web

# Specify custom ports
git-watchtower --port 8080 --web --web-port 9000

# Wrap your own dev server
git-watchtower --mode command -c "npm run dev"

# Re-run the configuration wizard
git-watchtower --init

# Show help
git-watchtower --help

How It Works

1. Polling — Runs git fetch periodically to check for updates
2. Detection — Compares commit hashes to detect new commits, branches, and deletions
3. Auto-pull — When your current branch has remote updates, pulls automatically (if enabled)
4. Server — Depending on mode, serves static files, runs your command, or does nothing
5. Live Reload — In static site mode, notifies connected browsers via SSE when files change
6. Web Dashboard — Optional browser UI that mirrors and extends the TUI via SSE

Requirements

• Node.js 20.0.0 or higher
• Git installed and in PATH
• Git remote configured (any name, defaults to origin)
• Terminal with ANSI color support