GH Desktop Plus

August 7, 2026 · View on GitHub

This is an up-to-date fork of GitHub Desktop with additional features and improvements.

Important

This is a community-maintained project. It is not an official GitHub product.

Highlights 👀

Search commits by title, message, tag, or hash

Rich integration with all major Git platforms 1

Commit searchMultiple accounts

Create multiple stashes per branch

Visualize the Commit Graph

Multiple stashesCommit Graph

Buttons optimized for visual recognition

Quickly find unpushed branches

Stash headerBranch push indicator

Additional Features in Desktop Plus ✨

See the full list of features here.

See demo video

Download and Installation 📦

Windows

Click to expand 
winget install DesktopPlus.DesktopPlus

To update, run winget upgrade DesktopPlus.DesktopPlus or winget upgrade --all to update all your winget packages. Make sure to update regularly to get the latest features and fixes.

Download and execute the installer from the releases page.

64-bit x8664-bit ARM
.EXE Installer-win-x64.exe-win-arm64.exe
.MSI Installer ⚠️-win-x64.msi-win-arm64.msi

Please note that the app doesn't auto-update like the official GitHub Desktop, so you will need to manually download and install it every time you want to update.
For this reason, I recommend using Winget instead of the manual download.

⚠️ The MSI installer is meant for enterprise deployments and is not recommended for regular users. If you want to use it, keep in mind that you will need to reboot your computer to finish the installation. The MSI installer only registers a hook that will install the app on login.

macOS

Click to expand 
brew install desktop-plus/tap/desktop-plus

Make sure to run brew update + brew upgrade regularly to get the latest updates for Desktop Plus.

Download and extract the ZIP file from the releases page. Click the app file to run it.
If you encounter the error "Apple could not verify this app is free of malware", go to "System Settings" > "Privacy & Security", scroll down to "Security" and click "Open Anyway" on "Desktop Plus".

64-bit x8664-bit ARM (Apple Silicon)
-macOS-x64.zip-macOS-arm64.zip

Please note that the app doesn't auto-update like the official GitHub Desktop, so you will need to manually download it every time you want to update.
For this reason, I recommend using Homebrew instead of the manual download.

Debian · Ubuntu · Mint · Pop!_OS · Zorin · elementary OS (APT)

Click to expand

Create the repository file:

sudo curl https://gpg.desktop-plus.org/public.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/desktop-plus.gpg
echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/desktop-plus.gpg] https://apt.desktop-plus.org/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/desktop-plus.list

Update the package list and install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install desktop-plus

Fedora · RHEL · CentOS Stream · Rocky Linux · AlmaLinux (RPM)

Click to expand

Create the repository file:

sudo rpm --import https://gpg.desktop-plus.org/public.key
echo -e "[desktop-plus]\nname=Desktop Plus\nbaseurl=https://rpm.desktop-plus.org/\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\nrepo_gpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://gpg.desktop-plus.org/public.key" | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/desktop-plus.repo

Update the package list and install:

sudo dnf check-update --refresh
sudo dnf install desktop-plus

Option 2: Using Terra

Make sure you have installed or enabled the Terra repository. Then, run:

sudo dnf install desktop-plus-bin

Note: The Terra package is unofficial. Use at your own risk.

OpenSUSE (RPM)

Click to expand

Create the repository file:

sudo rpm --import https://gpg.desktop-plus.org/public.key
echo -e "[desktop-plus]\nname=Desktop Plus\nbaseurl=https://rpm.desktop-plus.org/\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\nrepo_gpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://gpg.desktop-plus.org/public.key" | sudo tee /etc/zypp/repos.d/desktop-plus.repo

Update the package list and install:

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install desktop-plus

Arch Linux · EndeavourOS · Garuda Linux · Manjaro (AUR)

Click to expand

Simply install desktop-plus-bin from the AUR using your preferred AUR helper.

yay -S desktop-plus-bin

You can also build from source by installing desktop-plus or desktop-plus-git from the AUR.

gnome-keyring is required and the daemon must be launched either at login or when the X server / Wayland compositor is started. Normally this is handled by a display manager, but in other cases following the instructions found on the Arch Wiki will fix the issue of not being able to save login credentials.

Flatpak (any distro)

Click to expand

Simply install Desktop Plus from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub org.desktop_plus.desktop-plus

NOTE: Git hooks will run inside the Flatpak sandbox and cannot access programs installed on your system (such as version managers, linters, or other tools your hooks rely on). If your hooks depend on such programs, install a native package instead.

Click to expand

IMPORTANT: I strongly recommend using your distribution's native package (APT, RPM, and AUR packages above) or Flatpak instead of the AppImage, as it requires some manual setup for the sign-in feature to work.
If you need to use the AppImage, follow these steps:

  1. Manually create a desktop-plus.desktop entry.
  2. Link the MIME type: 
    xdg-mime default desktop-plus.desktop x-scheme-handler/x-github-desktop-auth

Option 1: Using "AM"/"AppMan"

# If using "AM":
am install github-desktop-plus
# If using "AppMan":
appman install github-desktop-plus

Note: The AM/AppMan package is unofficial. Use at your own risk.

Download the AppImage from the releases page:

64-bit x8664-bit ARM
-linux-x86_64.AppImage-linux-arm64.AppImage

Then, make it executable:

chmod +x DesktopPlus-*-linux-*.AppImage

Finally, double-click the .AppImage file to run it.

Common issues 🛠️

Before opening a new issue, please check the Known Issues document for common issues and their workarounds.

Command Line Interface 💻

Desktop Plus includes a CLI (desktop-plus-cli) for opening and cloning repositories from the terminal. See the CLI documentation for usage details and instructions on creating a shorter alias.

Running the app locally 🏗️

From the terminal

corepack enable  # Install yarn if needed
yarn             # Install dependencies
yarn build:dev   # Initial build
yarn start       # Start the app for development and watch for changes

  • It's normal for the app to take a while to start up, especially the first time.

  • While starting up, this error is normal: UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Error: Invalid header: Does not start with Cr24

  • You don't need to restart the app to apply changes. Just reload the window (Ctrl + Alt + R / Cmd + Alt + R).

  • Changes to the code inside main-process do require a full rebuild. Stop the app and run yarn build:dev again.

  • Read this document for more information on how to set up your development environment.

From VSCode

The first time you open the project, install the dependencies by running:

corepack enable
yarn

Then, you can simply build and run the app by pressing F5.
Breakpoints should be set in the developer tools, not the VSCode editor.

Running tests

I recommend running the tests in a Docker container for reproducibility and to avoid conflicts with your git configuration.
After installing the dependencies with yarn, make sure you have Docker installed and run:

yarn test:docker

Why this fork?

First, because shiftkey's fork is currently unmaintained (the last commit was in February 2025), so all Linux users are no longer getting the latest features and fixes from the official GitHub Desktop repository.

Secondly, I think the official GitHub Desktop app is very slow in terms of updates and lacks some advanced features that I'd like. This fork has low code quality requirements compared to the official repo, so I (and hopefully you as well) can add features and improvements quickly.
This fork also focuses on integrating nicely with Bitbucket, since I use it for work and haven't found a good Linux GUI client for it.

Keep in mind that this version is not endorsed by GitHub, and it's aimed at power users with technical knowledge. If you're looking for a polished and stable product, I recommend using the official GitHub Desktop app instead.

Acknowledgments 🙏

Application icon adapted from git-branch-plus by Lucide, ISC license.

Footnotes

  1. Rich integration with GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket Cloud, GitLab Cloud, self-hosted GitLab, Codeberg Cloud, self-hosted Forgejo, Gitea Cloud, and self-hosted Gitea. Multi-account support is available for all of them (e.g., sign in to multiple GitHub accounts at the same time). ↩