GitHits

GitHits CLI

The infrastructure layer connecting agents to the open-source ecosystem.

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GitHits connects AI coding agents to public open-source evidence across the full software development lifecycle: discovery, planning, research, implementation, debugging, and maintenance.

The CLI runs a local MCP server that your coding tool starts on demand. Agents can then search indexed package and repository source, read exact files and documentation pages, inspect package health, compare dependency upgrades, and find source-cited examples from real open-source projects when model knowledge and local repository context are not enough.

Want to use GitHits as part of your agent harness or software factory? Check out our public API documentation.

Quick Start

npx githits@latest init

init signs you in, detects supported coding tools, and configures GitHits for the tools you select. It uses the local stdio MCP except for Cursor, whose direct setup uses the hosted remote MCP.

Automatic setup currently supports Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code / Copilot, Cline, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, Pi, Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity, OpenCode, Hermes Agent, Zed, Junie, Qwen Code, Kiro, Kilo Code, Factory Droid, and Amazon Q CLI.

After setup, open your coding agent and work normally. Many agents call GitHits when they need source-backed context. If your agent starts guessing, prompt it directly:

Use GitHits Code Navigation to inspect npm:express. Find how middleware

errors are handled, read the relevant source, and explain the fix before editing code.

What GitHits Adds

GitHits is designed for the point where an agent needs evidence from the broader open-source ecosystem, not just model memory or local repo context:

Use GitHits when your agent needs to:

• discover, plan, or research how OSS projects solve a vague issue or unfamiliar error
• find broad prior art or rare needle-in-the-haystack examples across repositories
• inspect source, tests, symbols, or docs for a known package or repository
• verify how a dependency actually behaves before changing code
• debug stack traces that point into third-party code
• review package health, licenses, vulnerabilities, dependencies, and changelogs
• compare dependency upgrades using factual evidence

Examples

Find prior art across open source:

npx githits@latest example "HTTP retries with exponential backoff in Python"

Search indexed code, docs, and symbols for a dependency:

npx githits@latest search "router middleware" --in npm:express

npx githits@latest search '"body parser" OR multer' --in npm:express --source docs npx githits@latest search "debounce" --in npm:lodash --source symbol

Read and grep dependency source without cloning:

npx githits@latest code files npm:express lib

npx githits@latest code read npm:express lib/router/index.js --lines 120-200 npx githits@latest grep 'router\.use' npm:express --path-prefix lib/

Inspect package health and upgrade evidence:

npx githits@latest pkg info npm:express

npx githits@latest pkg vulns npm:lodash@4.17.20 --severity high

Look up advisory IDs across affected packages

npx githits@latest vulns CVE-2026-26996 GHSA-3ppc-4f35-3m26 npx githits@latest pkg deps npm:express@4.18.2 --depth 2 npx githits@latest pkg changelog npm:express --from 4.18.2 --to 5.2.1 npx githits@latest pkg upgrade-review npm:zod@4.3.6 --to 4.4.3

Browse and read package documentation:

npx githits@latest docs list npm:express

npx githits@latest docs read --lines 20-80

Source Diffs

githits code diff and the public MCP code_diff tool are available by default. Compare exact package versions or public repository refs, for example:

githits code diff npm:express 5.2.0..5.2.1 --stat

githits code diff npm:express 5.2.0..5.2.1 --patch -- 'lib/**/*.js'

Package diffs are repository-wide unless narrowed by an explicit path glob. Raw diffs do not prove upgrade safety. See source diff for bounds, patch safety, and supported addressing. Hosted MCP availability requires adoption of the released @githits/mcp package and deployment.

Target Resolution

resolve_target / githits resolve turns a fuzzy, misspelled or ambiguous public package, repository or documentation-site name into ranked canonical targets. It is available by default in the CLI, local MCP and public MCP package. Canonical targets skip resolution; uncertain identity needs an explicit choice. See target resolution for continuation rules and limits. Hosted MCP and plugins receive it after the released package is adopted and deployed.

Research

research / githits research answers a question about one public package or repository with a verified answer that cites its sources. It is available by default in the CLI, local MCP and public MCP package:

githits research "How does FastAPI dependency injection resolve nested dependencies?"

githits research npm:express "Where is router dispatch implemented?" githits research --thread "How does that interact with route parameters?"

Omit the target to let GitHits identify it from the question; reuse a returned thread ID for follow-ups. Answers usually take 30 seconds to a few minutes. Questions are sent to GitHits, so never include credentials, personal data or private code. Research may return a rate-limit or daily-limit error; the message says when to retry, and the daily limit resets at 00:00 UTC. See research for sources, threads and limits. Hosted MCP and plugins receive it after the released package is adopted and deployed.

Supported Sources

GitHits works with package and repository targets such as:

• package specs: npm:react, npm:react@18.2.0, pypi:requests, crates:serde, pub:path
• GitHub repos: https://github.com/expressjs/express, github:expressjs/express@main

Package inspection supports npm, PyPI, Hex, Crates, NuGet, Maven, Packagist, RubyGems, Go, Swift, Pub, vcpkg, and Zig. Advisory data is unavailable for vcpkg and Zig; dependency graph support varies by registry. cargo: is an input alias for crates: (public crates.io); canonical registry identities remain crates.

License Filtering

Code example search supports license filtering:

• strict is the default and filters repositories with copyleft or undeclared licenses
• custom uses your account blocklist configured at githits.com
• yolo disables license filtering

npx githits@latest example "async file reading" --lang python --license strict

Authentication

Normal local setup is handled by:

npx githits@latest init

For manual login:

npx githits@latest login

Browser OAuth is recommended for local development. Credentials are stored in the system keychain by default and refreshed automatically. Useful flags:

• init --no-browser or login --no-browser prints the login URL instead of launching a browser
• init --port or login --port fixes the loopback callback port
• login --force re-authenticates even if you are already logged in

The OAuth callback always listens on the machine where GitHits is running. When GitHits runs over SSH and the browser runs locally, forward the selected port from the browser machine:

ssh -N -L 8765:127.0.0.1:8765 user@remote-host

With that tunnel open, run GitHits on the remote machine using the same port:

npx githits@latest init --no-browser --port 8765

Open the URL printed by GitHits in the local browser. Replace user@remote-host with the SSH destination you normally use. The same flags work with githits login after setup.

Browser OAuth is interactive. For CI and other unattended environments, supply GITHITS_API_TOKEN through the environment's secret manager.

Keychain Prompts and File Storage

GitHits uses the system keychain by default because OAuth credentials include a refresh token. On macOS this means Keychain Access; on Windows it means Credential Manager; on Linux it means the available Secret Service or keyring backend.

If macOS shows a prompt such as "githits wants to access ... in your keychain", choose Always Allow when you trust the installed githits CLI. GitHits cannot customize that operating-system prompt; it is generated by macOS.

GitHits also writes a small non-secret metadata file so recent startup checks do not need to read the keychain. The keychain is only read when GitHits needs the token, for example during a tool call, token refresh, githits auth status, or a login check after metadata is stale or expired.

If your agent keeps showing keychain prompts even after Always Allow, switch OAuth storage to file mode:

# macOS/Linux: ~/.config/githits/config.toml, or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/githits/config.toml

Windows: %APPDATA%\githits\config.toml

[auth] storage = "file"

The config directory may be empty until you create config.toml or GitHits writes auth metadata. Older macOS installs may have used ~/Library/Application Support/githits; GitHits still reads that location for migration, but new auth config and file storage use ~/.config/githits.

You can also opt in for one process:

GITHITS_AUTH_STORAGE=file githits login --force

File mode stores OAuth credenti