🧰 Turning a Folder of Git Repos Into Project Launcher

📆 2026-03-11 10:07

Some time ago ( 2025-07-10 ) I wrote about a small script for updating and navigating Git repositories:

Automating Git Repo Updates and Navigation with a POSIX Shell Script

Since then, my workflow has evolved a bit. The script below is an updated version with a few quality-of-life improvements, mainly around usability and integration with my terminal and tmux workflow.

What This New Script Does

The script manages all Git repositories stored in ~/Work. It performs two main tasks:

• Updates every repository in the directory
• Lets me quickly search, select and open a repository

See the script in action

You can view the video linked below and see it in action:

Update repositories (new script) in action

Get the script

💾 Source code

change lines 3 and 4 to update your work directory and terminal

Why I Like This Approach

This setup keeps things simple and efficient:

• all repositories update with one command
• fuzzy search makes project selection instant
• every repository has its own tmux session
• everything relies on small Unix tools

Tools used:

• bash
• git
• fzf
• tmux
• dunst - for notifications
• alacritty - my terminal of choice

The workflow is simple:

• Update all repositories with git pull
• Send a desktop notification when the update is finished
• Present a repository list using fzf
• Open the selected repository in a tmux session inside a terminal

This turns a plain directory of projects into a lightweight project launcher.

Updating All Repositories

The first part scans the directory for .git folders and pulls updates.

for gitdir in */.git; do
    [ -d "$gitdir" ] || continue
    repo="${gitdir%/.git}"
    echo "Updating $repo"
    git -C "$repo" pull --ff-only || true
done

Using --ff-only prevents accidental merge commits during automated pulls. If a repository cannot fast-forward, it is simply skipped.

Desktop Notification

Once all repositories are processed, the script sends a notification:

dunstify -h string:x-dunst-stack-tag:git "Git Update" "All repositories has been updated"

This integrates nicely with lightweight notification daemons like dunst.

Discovering Repositories

The script then searches for Git repositories inside the working directory:

find "$WORKDIR" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d \
    -exec test -d "{}/.git" \; -print

The directory names are extracted, sorted, and turned into a menu list for fzf. An Exit option is added so the menu can be dismissed easily.

Selecting a Repository

Repository selection is handled with fzf:

repo=$(printf "%s\n" "$menu" | fzf \
    --prompt="Select repo > " \
    --height=35% \
    --border=rounded \
    --tmux)

This makes navigating a large number of repositories fast and convenient.

Opening the Project in tmux

Once a repository is selected, the script checks if a tmux session already exists:

tmux has-session -t "$repo" 2>/dev/null ||
tmux new-session -d -s "$repo" -c "$dir"

If the session doesn't exist, it creates one in the repository directory.

Finally, a new terminal window (in my case alacritty) opens and attaches to that session.

This means every project keeps its own persistent tmux workspace.

Closing Thoughts

Small scripts like this are a good reminder of how powerful simple tools can be. A bit of shell scripting can replace much heavier project management workflows.

And like most shell scripts, it keeps evolving as the workflow evolves.

🚶 Back to my blog