Lazygit Tutorial

This is my Lazygit tutorial, which will help you get an overview of the most important features. It will speed up your git workflow and make it easier for you.

If you’re a coder/hacker, I would recommend using neovim - but at least learn some basic vim commands. They will follow you throughout your career AND they’re great!

You can use hotkeys to switch through panels, those are num 1 to 5.

Your first steps

Open Lazygit inside a git repository, press Tab to move forward and Shift + Tab to move backwards between panels on the left side. Use j and k to move up/down inside a panel and J, K to scroll up/down inside your main panel on the right side.

Add a few files to your repository; Lazygit will reload automatically, or if you’re pressing r.

Now choose those files from the files panel to be staged by selecting them (Navigate to the Files panel via Tab or Shift + Tab (Or Hotkey 1), select a file using j or k) and press Space to toggle the selected file staged/unstaged.

Just press c to commit your staged files and write your commit message.

And push your code by pressing P.

If you don’t need to have the git messages and the “Press enter to return to lazygit” call you can add this into your ~/.config/lazygit/config.yml:

promptToReturnFromSubprocess: false

You can use a to stage/unstage all files - be careful with this because Lazygit will not remember your selected files via Space.

You’re able to stage individual hunks/lines from a file by selecting the file and pressing Enter. This will split your main panel into “Unstaged/Staged” view.

Again, you’re able to use vim commands j and k to move through your hunks/lines, select them by pressing Space, press Tab to toggle between “Unstaged/Staged” view.

If you want to go back to your files panel, just press ESC.

You’re able to scroll via J, K.

To create a Tag just press T on your commits panel (Hotkey 4).

With staged changes in your files panel, you can amend it to any commit you selected it with A. Amending commits earlier than the latest commit will result in Lazygit doing a rebase for you.

You can edit the commit message with r, or with your external editor using R.

To select one or multiple commits for cherry picking, type C. You can then switch to another branch and apply them with v.

Another fantastic feature is the capability to expand all side panels into half-screen mode and subsequently into full-screen mode using the + button.

Example:

Half Screen	Full Screen

Commits Panel

Squash & Fixup

To squash commits, just navigate (Tab) to your commits panel, select the specific commit and press s. A Popup Menu will ask you

Are you sure you want to squash this commit into the commit below?

Just press Enter and both commits are now squashed. You’re able to undo by simple type Ctrl + z and Enter.

Open commit in Browser

A highly useful and convenient feature is the ability to directly open the selected commit in your browser by simply pressing o.

Branches Panel

Navigate to your Branches Menu and type n to create a new branch. To rename it, press R while the branch is selected.

To explore the commits of a branch without switching to it, use Enter. You can drill down into individual commits with Enter again, or move back up with ESC.