---
title: "Product Brief Distillate: GitPulse"
type: llm-distillate
source: "product-brief-gitpulse.md"
created: "2025-04-25"
purpose: "Token-efficient context for downstream PRD creation"
---

# GitPulse — Product Brief Distillate

## Product Identity

- **Name:** GitPulse (project codename; also considered: GitRadar)
- **Tagline concept:** "The command center for your code"
- **Positioning:** Developer infrastructure (not tooling) — the control plane for local code ecosystems
- **License:** MIT/Apache (truly open source, not Fair Source)
- **Stack:** Tauri v2 + React frontend + Rust backend
- **Target:** Indie devs, freelances, power users managing 5+ repos

## Problem Context

- Core pain: developers lose track of repo state across 5-50+ repos, leading to forgotten pushes, stale branches, undetected conflicts
- Time cost: significant monthly time loss to manual `git status` checks (GitKraken marketing claims 20+ hours/month — should be validated with independent research before citing to investors)
- Coping mechanisms: shell scripts (fragile), VS Code workspaces (basic), GitKraken Workspaces (paid/heavy), gita (manual config), lazygit (single-repo)
- Key insight: no tool combines auto-discovery + visual dashboard + batch ops + AI in a free/open package

## User Segments (Detailed)

**Segment 1 — Indie Dev Poly-Project (primary):**
- Freelance/solo, 10-50+ repos across clients, OSS, personal
- Context-switches daily, loses track of uncommitted changes
- Wants instant visibility, zero config
- Budget: $0-10/month for tools

**Segment 2 — Power User / Tech Lead:**
- Senior dev, microservices architecture, 12-30+ repos
- Uses CLI + GUI hybrid workflow
- Wants batch ops, cross-repo dependency visibility, advanced AI analysis
- Willing to configure cloud API keys for powerful reasoning

**Segment 3 — Maker / Side-Project Builder:**
- Creative dev with 20+ side projects, many dormant
- Needs dormancy detection, cleanup prompts
- Budget-constrained, values free/open source

## UX Decisions

- **Card Grid view:** compact tiles for pattern recognition (branch, status, ahead/behind, last commit, stash)
- **List view:** sortable/filterable/selectable rows for batch operations
- **System tray:** always-on monitoring, push reminders, remote change alerts
- **First launch experience:** scan starts immediately, no wizard, no login. Target: full dashboard visible in < 30 seconds from download
- **i18n:** English at launch, framework ready from day 1, French planned as first additional language
- **.gitpulseignore:** exclude sensitive directories from auto-discovery (client work, tutorial clones, etc.)

## AI Architecture — Model-Agnostic

- **Local mode (Ollama):** Default, fully private, free. Used for commit messages, health summaries
- **Cloud mode:** User's own API keys for Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic
- **Hybrid mode:** Per-task routing — Ollama for routine tasks (free), cloud for complex analysis (paid by user)
- **Privacy indicator:** Visual badge in UI showing local vs cloud mode. "Your code never leaves your machine" in local mode
- **Graceful degradation:** Works perfectly without any AI (deterministic status parsing)
- **No vendor lock-in:** Unlike GitKraken (Gemini-only) or GitButler (Claude-only)
- **DeepSeek specifically:** Very popular for cost-performance ratio, competitive advantage to support it

## Competitive Intelligence

**GitKraken:**
- Electron (500MB+ RAM), 3.1/5 AlternativeTo rating
- Free tier blocks ALL private repos since v6.0
- Mandatory login even for local repos
- AI limited to Gemini (cloud only)
- Pricing: Free (public only), Pro $8/seat/mo, Advanced $12, Business $16
- Weakness: performance, paywall, login requirement

**GitButler:**
- Tauri/Rust/Svelte (same stack as GitPulse, ~15MB binary)
- Raised $17M Series A (April 2026) — validates git tooling market
- Fair Source license (NOT open source — cannot build competitors, not OSI-approved)
- v0.19.9 beta, 291 open issues, critical bugs (files disappearing #5877, SSH signing broken #5873)
- Single-repo focused, issue #5825 for multi-repo exists but not prioritized
- AI: cloud only (Claude integration)
- Testimonials from Sentry, Notion, ex-Stripe engineers

**Hive (hive-ai.dev):**
- New entrant April 2026
- Multi-repo workspace with agent SDK
- Earliest direct competitor — monitor closely

**RepoZ:**
- Auto disk scan (closest to GitPulse's discovery)
- .NET/WPF, Windows/macOS only, minimal UI
- No batch ops, no AI, appears unmaintained

**lazygit:**
- 50k+ GitHub stars, single-repo TUI
- Performance issues on large repos (topological log traversal)
- No multi-repo view

**gita:**
- Python CLI, batch operations with "superman" mode
- Manual repo registration, no auto-discovery
- ANSI color issues on Windows

## Monetization — Open Core

- **Community tier (free forever):** ALL local features, unlimited repos, full model-agnostic AI, zero restrictions. Not a trial — the complete local product
- **Cloud tier (paid):** Multi-machine sync, team analytics, SaaS integrations (Jira, Linear, Slack). Price TBD — model at $5-10/month
- **Enterprise tier (paid):** SSO, compliance dashboards, audit trails, on-premise. Price TBD — model at $15-25/seat/month
- **Key principle:** Never paywall features that GitKraken paywalls (private repos, local features). Premium is additive cloud value, not restricted local value
- **Conversion funnel assumption:** 2-5% free-to-paid (needs validation)
- **Fundraising trigger:** Seed $1-2M if 5,000 MAU + 3% conversion by month 9

## Technical Constraints & Preferences

- Single binary distribution (.exe, .dmg, .deb) — no installer wizard
- Zero telemetry by default (opt-in only, with clear disclosure)
- Performance targets: ~15MB binary, <200MB RAM, scan results in seconds (qualify: SSD, <100 repos)
- Cross-platform: Windows + macOS + Linux from day 1
- File watcher for real-time updates: Phase 2 (not MVP)
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) support: Phase 3 (extensibility strategy)
- Batch operation error handling: per-repo error reporting, partial success UX (must be in MVP)

## Rejected Ideas & Decisions

- **AI features paywalled:** REJECTED. All AI features free in community tier. Cloud tier monetizes sync/analytics, not intelligence
- **Electron stack:** REJECTED. Tauri/Rust chosen for structural performance advantage
- **Ollama-only AI:** REJECTED. Multi-model from day 1 (Ollama + 4 cloud APIs)
- **Mandatory account/login:** REJECTED. Zero-login, zero-config, works offline
- **CI/CD integration in MVP:** REJECTED. Deferred to Phase 3
- **Merge conflict UI in MVP:** REJECTED. Deferred to post-MVP
- **Mobile companion:** REJECTED. Desktop + system tray only
- **Cloud features in MVP:** REJECTED. Local-first MVP, cloud tier in Phase 2+

## Go-to-Market Signals

- Launch channels: Hacker News Show HN (#1), Product Hunt (#2), Reddit r/programming + r/git + r/selfhosted (#3)
- Optimal Show HN timing: Tuesday/Wednesday 8-10am EST
- Target: 200+ upvotes on Show HN, 500 stars in month 1
- Partnership opportunity: Tauri showcase case study (disproportionate visibility to right demographic)
- Partnership opportunity: Ollama ecosystem (canonical "Git meets local AI" app)
- Content flywheel: auto-generated repo health reports / "year in code" summaries (shareable on social)
- CLI companion tool (gitpulse-cli) as terminal-first adoption path

## Open Questions

- Product name final: GitPulse confirmed, but GitRadar still under consideration
- Pricing: Cloud and Enterprise tier pricing not yet modeled in detail
- MAU measurement: how to track monthly active users for a privacy-first, local-only desktop app (opt-in telemetry vs. proxy metrics like downloads/stars)
- Ollama model selection: which model to recommend as default for Smart Status (quality vs. resource trade-off)
- 20+ hours/month claim: should be validated with independent user research before citing to investors
- Disk scan performance on slow/network drives: needs real-world benchmarking

## Scope Boundaries

**MVP (Day 1):** Scan + Dashboard (cards + list) + Batch ops + System tray + Smart Status (Ollama + 4 cloud APIs) + .gitpulseignore + i18n framework

**Phase 2 (M4-6):** Repo grouping/tagging + Advanced AI + Worktrees + File watcher + CLI companion + Cloud tier

**Phase 3 (M7-12):** Dependency graph + MCP + Autonomous agents + GitHub/GitLab integration + Enterprise tier
