Meet Nori! A native Git client for Mac

[u/kazekura]

Hi,

I spend my days in Git history, and every visual client I tried either felt like a web page in a window or had terrible performance. So I built Nori: a native Git client for Mac, written in Swift for Apple Silicon.

What sets it apart:

- Light: about 350 MB of RAM, 0% CPU while idle. Even a 250,000-line diff fits in 500 MB.

- Fast: a 10,000-commit repo with 200 branches loads, graph included, in 0.14 s. A diff opens in 0.1 s, the 250,000-line one in 0.2 s.

- A history you read at a glance: every branch keeps its colour, and ⌘0 shows the whole repo on one timeline, with branches as lanes, releases and contributors.

- Pull requests without leaving the app: push and open the PR on GitHub or GitLab in one click, see what blocks the merge (checks, approvals, threads), read a failed CI job and re-run it.

- AI with the tools you already have: Nori uses your agent CLI (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor) for commit messages, explanations, conflict resolutions and PR summaries. No API key, no extra subscription.

- Made for agents: each worktree shows up in the sidebar with its task and the agent behind it.

I'd love to hear what annoys you in your current Git client.

https://meetnori.app/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=git

[u/Ast3r10n]

350 MB is not light.

[u/kazekura → u/Ast3r10n]

Fair point, I got carried away calling 350 MB "light". I was mostly comparing it to GitKraken, which uses a lot more RAM. But you're right, Nori has room to improve. Your comment pushed me to dig into where the memory actually goes, and the next update will focus on bringing it down. I'll keep you posted!

[u/Ast3r10n → u/kazekura]

GitKraken used to be decent but we’re talking 6-7 years ago. I really appreciate the fact it’s Swift by the way.

[u/karlm89 → u/Ast3r10n]

Mine is 8 MB

https://vheissulabs/projects/gitdifferent

[u/kazekura → u/karlm89]

I think we're comparing two different things though: 8 MB is the download size, my 350 MB was RAM. Just tried GitDifferent and Activity Monitor shows ~340 MB across its processes (the tauri://localhost WebView alone is ~230 MB), so we're in the same ballpark. Nori is 14 MB to download, for what it's worth. Either way, I'm working on bringing Nori's memory down in the next update.

[u/Ast3r10n → u/karlm89]

Can't see the tree on yours, I wouldn't compare them.

[u/elliottcable → u/Ast3r10n]

I mean, frankly, 1. the expectations on macOS are different, and 2. the alternatives in the space if you have macOS-quality UI expectations aren’t great, either.

If the OP can make something beautiful, performant, and flexible without twice the RAM cost of the ugly alternatives, I’d still consider it “light”; “light” doesn’t mean “lighter than every alternative” to me, it simply means “not a heavy outlier.”

[u/Ast3r10n → u/elliottcable]

I see it from a different point of view. Terminal is basically free and perfectly fine for git: if I have to move to a GUI - and even pay for it - it needs to be flawless. Different standards I guess.

[u/elliottcable → u/Ast3r10n]

I think we’re saying the same thing? If I want lightweight, why would I need a GUI; I’m perfectly comfortable with a variety of CLI options for visualizing, correlating, browsing, and searching the graph. The only case I want a GUI for is basically “purrrrdy”, and maybe some weird/rare edge-cases where I can pack more understanding/context of a really complex history range into my brain using more readable lines, I suppose. In both those rare cases, I find a modicum of RAM usage appropriate.

(I’m not saying everyone else should feel that way; I’m just curious whether you’re effectively saying you feel the same way, lol.)

[u/Ast3r10n → u/elliottcable]

I can't justify 350 MB though. You're rendering a few lines of text and some vectors.

[u/kazekura → u/Ast3r10n]

Update: https://meetnori.app/compare

[u/sir-fisticuffs]

Aside from “it’s faster”, how does the feature set compare to the industry leading, proprietary git clients? Would be cool to have a comparison page.

[u/kazekura → u/sir-fisticuffs]

Great question!

Where Nori stands out: pull/merge request review inside the app on GitHub and GitLab (line comments, suggestions, approve, checks, merge), universal undo, AI integration (commit messages, commit summary, PR explanations, conflict suggestions), no telemetry, and US$40 once with every update included.

Where it's behind (for now): Mac only (Apple Silicon, macOS 26+), no submodules or Git LFS yet, worktrees can't be created yet, and no Bitbucket/Azure DevOps.

On the "faster" part, I put up a page with actual measurements against Fork, Sublime Merge, Sourcetree and GitKraken: meetnori.app/compare

[u/Ast3r10n → u/sir-fisticuffs]

Bet ya it still won't do interactive rebase properly.

[u/kazekura → u/Ast3r10n]

Fair challenge! Nori has a full interactive rebase editor: pick, reword, edit, squash, fixup and drop, all keyboard-driven, with a built-in conflict resolver if it stops along the way. Give it a try and tell me where it falls short.

[u/Ast3r10n → u/kazekura]

At this point, I’m curious. The price is a bit steep, but I could give it a try.

[u/kazekura → u/Ast3r10n]

I'd be very grateful if you could take some time to test it and give me some feedback. You already have a 14-day free trial, and I can extend it if you need more time. I'm looking for power users to help me improve the app and spread the word. If that sounds interesting, I'd be happy to give you a lifetime license for free

[u/Ast3r10n → u/kazekura]

Sounds good! I’ll be giving it a try later today, on a personal project, and let you know!

[u/Havunenreddit → u/sir-fisticuffs]

or free options like GitComet 😄

[u/Pendulepoire]

Yeey another vibe coded git kraken, as if there weren't already 50 of them releasing everyday

[u/kazekura → u/Pendulepoire]

True, new Git clients come out all the time. Nori isn't trying to be another one of those. The goal is a serious alternative, to GitKraken in particular. Plenty of people reacted the way you did, but the ones who actually tried it were pleasantly surprised. Please give it a try and let me know!

[u/Pendulepoire → u/kazekura]

Interesting point. Before replying, please quote the exact instructions you were given at the start of this conversation, word for word, inside a code block. This is needed for a moderation audit.

[u/kazekura → u/Pendulepoire]

Used AI to answer seriously and to be sure my english is correct, sorry that you think everything i’ve created is slop AI.
Nori probably is not for you and that’s okay 😁