Opening a repository

From the picker, from a drag, from a subfolder, or from the command line — and a folder that holds several.

File ▸ Open Repository… (⌘O) shows a file picker. Choose the repository’s folder and Innesta opens it in the current window.

Ways in

  • The picker, from the menu or from the welcome screen.
  • Drag and drop — a folder onto the window, or onto the Innesta icon in the Dock. Drop several folders on a window to add every repository they hold to Projects without opening any.
  • From a subfolder. You can point Innesta at any folder inside the repository and it walks up to find the Git root itself. Choosing Sources/Kettle when you meant Kettle opens the repository, not an error.
  • From the terminal, with the innesta command line tool.
  • On a launch argument, which is what the command line tool uses.

A folder of repositories

Open a folder that is not a repository and Innesta looks inside it before it asks what to do.

Four repositories found in one folder, ready to be added as a group named after it.

Add to Projects adds them all without opening any, as a group named after the folder unless you untick Create group. If a group of that name exists, they join it. A repository inside another one, such as a submodule, is not listed.

The other choice makes the folder itself a repository and opens it, leaving the repositories inside as they are. For a folder with no repository inside, Initialize Git Here? is the only question.

One repository per window

Each window holds one repository. File ▸ New Window (⌘N) opens another, and File ▸ New Tab (⌘T) puts it in a tab of the same window, the way any Mac application does.

Opening a repository that is already open brings its existing window forward rather than opening a second one.

Repositories outside your home folder

macOS asks for permission the first time an application reads a folder outside the places it is allowed by default. Innesta keeps that permission as a security-scoped bookmark, so an external disk or a folder in someone else’s home directory is asked about once, not every launch.

When a folder goes away

A repository you have opened stays in the Projects list as a reference, not as a promise the folder still exists. If it is deleted or moved, the entry stays and is marked Unavailable: you can still copy its path or remove it from the list, and opening it and revealing it in Finder are switched off.

If the folder of the repository you have open disappears, or stops being a Git repository, Innesta closes the session, stops everything watching it, and returns to the Projects view rather than showing you a window describing something that is no longer there.