GitServer

Your code. Your server. Your rules. A fast, lightweight, self-hosted Git platform — completely free and open source.

GitServer gives you everything you need to host your own Git repositories without sending your code to the cloud, paying monthly fees, or trusting a third party with your intellectual property. Deploy it on a Raspberry Pi, a VPS, or your own hardware in minutes.

Why GitServer?

Because your code doesn't belong to anyone else.

• 100% free — no plans, no tiers, no credit card required. Ever.
• Open source — read every line, modify anything, contribute back.
• Self-hosted — runs anywhere .NET runs. Linux, Windows, macOS, ARM.
• Lightweight — a single binary, a single SQLite database, zero external dependencies.
• No telemetry — your repositories never leave your machine.

Features

Repository Management

• Create public and private Git repositories
• Full HTTP/HTTPS Git protocol support — clone, push, pull with any standard Git client
• Browse the file tree, view files and diffs directly in the browser
• README rendering with full Markdown support
• Download any branch as a ZIP archive
• Branch and tag overview

Commit History

• Paginated commit log per branch
• Detailed commit view with syntax-highlighted diffs
• Changed file summary per commit

Issue Tracker

• Built-in issue tracker per repository
• Open and close issues, add comments
• Markdown support in issue bodies and comments

User Management

• User registration and authentication via ASP.NET Core Identity (email confirmation, password reset)
• Groups with members, usable as a unit when granting repository access
• Per-repository access control — grant individual users or whole groups Read or Write access to private repos
• Admin panel for user management and blocked email-pattern configuration for sign-ups
• Per-user profile pages with bio and avatar (via Gravatar)

Internationalization

• Ships with 10 languages out of the box: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic
• Language switcher in the navbar — preference stored in a cookie
• Extend with your own language by dropping a single JSON file into the Localization/ folder — no recompile needed

Security

• CSRF protection on all forms
• Secure HTTP-only cookies with configurable expiry
• Git push/pull protected by Basic Authentication
• Data Protection API keys persisted to disk, so sessions and tokens survive app restarts

Screenshots

Browse repositories, view code, manage issues — all from a clean dark-themed UI.

Prerequisites

That's it. No Docker required. No Postgres. No Redis. No message queue.

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/yourname/gitserver.git
cd gitserver

2. Configure

Edit src/GitServer/appsettings.json:

{
  "GitServer": {
    "RepositoriesPath": "/var/git/repos",
    "GitExecutable": "/usr/bin/git",
    "AllowRegistration": true,
    "GitPathPrefix": "",
    "DefaultPrivateOnAutoCreate": true,
    "MaxPushSizeMb": 2048
  },
  "Authentication": {
    "KeysPath": "/var/gitserver/dataprotection-keys",
    "ApplicationName": "GitServer",
    "ProtectKeysWithDpapi": false
  },
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "Default": "Data Source=gitserver.db"
  }
}

Note: ProtectKeysWithDpapi only applies on Windows. On Linux/macOS, leave it false and make sure KeysPath is on a volume only the app can read.

3. Run

cd src/GitServer
dotnet run

The database is created and migrated automatically on first start. Open your browser at http://localhost:5000.

The first user to register becomes admin automatically.

4. Production deployment

dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish
./publish/GitServer

Reverse-proxy with nginx or Caddy for HTTPS — GitServer itself speaks plain HTTP and lets your proxy handle TLS.

Example nginx config:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name git.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        # Required for git push/pull streaming
        proxy_request_buffering off;
        proxy_buffering off;
    }
}

Adding a Language

GitServer uses plain JSON files for translations. To add a new language:

1. Copy src/GitServer/Localization/en.json to e.g. src/GitServer/Localization/ko.json
2. Set "<strong>name</strong>" to the native language name (e.g. "한국어")
3. Translate all the values
4. Restart the server — your language appears in the navbar dropdown automatically

To pin a language to a specific position in the dropdown, add "<strong>order</strong>": "3" (lower numbers appear first; English is 1, Dutch is 2).

Architecture

GitServer is a single ASP.NET Core 10 application built on Razor Pages.

src/GitServer/
├── Controllers/        # Git HTTP protocol (upload-pack, receive-pack)
├── Data/               # EF Core DbContext + SQLite migrations
├── Localization/       # JSON translation files (one per language)
├── Middleware/         # Git Basic Auth middleware
├── Models/             # Domain models (User, Repository, Issue, Comment)
├── Services/           # Business logic (Git, Repository, Markdown, Localization)
└── wwwroot/            # Razor Pages + static assets
    ├── Auth/           # Login, Register
    ├── Repo/           # Repository browser, commits, branches, issues
    ├── User/           # Profile, settings
    └── Admin/          # User management

Stack:

• ASP.NET Core 10 Razor Pages
• Entity Framework Core with SQLite
• ASP.NET Core Identity
• Git operations run as plain git.exe subprocesses (Process.Start) — no native Git library dependency
• Zero JavaScript frameworks — vanilla JS only

Roadmap

• SSH key authentication
• Webhook support
• Organization/team accounts
• Git LFS support
• Repository forking

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push and open a pull request

License

MIT License — do whatever you want with it.

Built with .NET 10  ·  Open Source  ·  Free Forever