The Projects list

Everything you have opened or added, with the state each one was in when Innesta last looked, in groups if you want them.

Projects in the toolbar lists the repositories you have opened or added. It is more than a list of paths: each entry carries the branch it is on, whether it has uncommitted changes, whether it has unresolved conflicts, and how far ahead of or behind its remote it was.

That makes it a status board as much as a way in. Glancing at it is often enough to answer “did I leave that unfinished?” without opening anything.

A folder of four repositories, added as a group named after it. The counts on the left are the states the entries report.

What you can do to an entry

  • Open Project, in this window.
  • Show in Finder.
  • Copy Path.
  • Remove from Projects…, after a confirmation. This deletes nothing on disk — it stops Innesta offering the repository, and takes its branches and commits out of Spotlight.

The list is searchable, which is what makes it usable once you have twenty projects in it. When no project matches what you type, it lists the projects of the groups whose name does.

Groups

Drag one project onto another to put the two in a new group, called New Group until you name it. Drag a project onto a group, or onto a project in one, to move it there, or onto Ungrouped to take it out. An entry’s context menu has the same moves: New Group…, Move to Group and Remove from Group.

The arrow before a group’s name folds the group, and the group’s context menu has Rename Group… and Delete Group. Deleting a group keeps its projects, ungrouped; a group whose last project leaves it goes by itself.

Groups are saved and shared by every window. The sidebar lists them under Groups: choose one to see only its projects, in this window.

A folder of repositories can arrive as a group in one step: see opening a repository.

Order

The menu beside Saved Projects sorts the list. Last Opened is where it starts. Last Modified puts first the repository with the most recent local Git activity or uncommitted change, and shows on each entry how long ago that was; hover over it for the full date. Project Name sorts by folder name from A to Z, with numbers in numeric order: repo2 comes before repo10. Groups are sorted too: by name under Project Name, with ungrouped projects last, and otherwise by their first project. Innesta remembers the choice.

Unavailable projects

An entry whose folder no longer exists, or is no longer reachable, is marked Unavailable. It stays in the list, because a repository on a disk that is not plugged in has not stopped existing. Opening and revealing in Finder are switched off; copying the path and removing the entry still work.

Elsewhere in macOS

The same list appears in two other places:

  • The Dock menu, right-clicking Innesta’s icon, refreshed each time the menu opens.
  • The menu bar extra, which shows repository status and a few quick actions without bringing the window forward.

There is also a Focus Filter: macOS can be told to open a particular repository when a Focus turns on, so switching into “Work” opens the repository work means.