If you’ve been around Git for a while, you know two things are always true:
Git is ridiculously powerful.
Git can make you feel ridiculously powerless at the worst possible moment.
That’s why I’ve leaned on GitKraken Desktop for years. It smooths out the sharp edges of Git with a clean UI, a legendary commit graph, and conflict resolution that doesn’t make you want to through your laptop across the room.
But the latest updates on Windows go a step further. GitKraken Desktop now brings AI assistance, performance refinements, and some small but impactful UX changes that genuinely save time. I’ve been testing them in my day-to-day workflow, and here’s what stood out.
We’ve all been guilty of dropping a commit like:
git commit -m "fix stuff"
Yeah… not exactly enlightening for your future self or your teammates.
GitKraken Desktop now offers AI-powered commit message suggestions. Instead of staring at your staged changes, trying to distill a dozen lines into one sentence, you can hit the AI button and get a human-readable draft commit message.
For example, I staged a refactor of an API endpoint to add Swagger documentation, and the AI suggested:
Refactor user API endpoint to include Swagger annotations for request/response docs.
That’s not just usable — it’s better than "refactor", sure, it's a simple example but you get the idea. It saves time, enforces consistency, and gives you a nudge toward better commit hygiene. And if you’re working with conventional commits (feat/fix/chore), you can tweak the AI output to fit your format.
The best part? It doesn’t feel like a gimmick. I can still edit or reject the suggestion, but 8 times out of 10, it nails the intent.
No matter how much you rebase and plan, conflicts are inevitable. GitKraken Desktop has always been strong here, with side-by-side diff views that make it easier to choose “mine,” “theirs,” or a custom resolution.
The new update streamlines the conflict resolution workflow on Windows. The commit window no longer gets obscured when you’re working through changes (something users have asked for), and overall responsiveness feels tighter.
Small quality-of-life fixes like this might not be flashy, but if you’ve ever lost your place mid-resolution, you’ll notice the difference.
One of my gripes with GUI clients has always been lag on large repos. You hit “commit” or “merge” and wonder if the app froze or if Git is just thinking really hard.
GitKraken Desktop now adds better progress indicators for long-running actions. Push, pull, and merge operations give clearer feedback, so you’re not left guessing whether your repo is stuck.
On Windows, performance feels noticeably faster when staging big diffs or resolving conflicts. This isn’t just “benchmarked in release notes” speed — it’s something I’ve actually felt while working in repos with large commit histories.
Another subtle improvement: the tabbed repo interface has been polished to behave more like a modern browser. Tabs now size consistently (instead of ballooning based on repo name length), making it easier to switch between projects without playing “hunt the close button.”
If you juggle multiple repos (like most of us do), this is a huge usability win.
The best way to describe these updates? GitKraken Desktop wants you to spend less time fighting Git and more time coding.
It’s not about reinventing Git — it’s about reducing friction so developers stay in flow.
And that’s exactly what keeps me coming back to GitKraken Desktop: it doesn’t just wrap Git in a prettier interface; it actively makes the hardest parts of Git less painful.
If you’re on Windows and haven’t checked out the latest GitKraken Desktop, now’s a good time. Whether you’re managing a monorepo, hopping across five side projects, or just trying to keep your commit history from looking like a mess these updates deliver real value.
Git will always be complex — but your Git client doesn’t have to be.