Tools

Git branches

Where the branch on each row comes from, and what Pip shows when there is not one.

How it reads the repo#

Pip takes the process's working directory, walks up to the repository root, and reads .git directly. No git binary is invoked, no shell is spawned, and nothing is written back — it is a read of a file format that has been stable for fifteen years.

What you will see#

A branch name: The usual case — main, feat/webhooks, whatever is checked out.
A short hash: Something like 9f8e7d6c means a detached HEAD — mid-rebase, or checked out to a tag or a specific commit.
Nothing at all: The server is not running from inside a repository. It still gets detected on its runtime or its port; there is simply no branch to show.

When you switch branches#

The ref is re-read on every scan, so a git switch in your terminal shows up in the row within five seconds. You do not need to restart the server, or Pip.

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