A terminal git workflow with lazygit and delta

Tools used

• lazygit

  Terminal UI for git commands with visual interface for staging, committing, branching, and repository management

  83.5kGo

• delta

  Syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, and grep output with side-by-side view and word-level diff highlighting

  32.6kRust

Before you start

• -git installed; git 2.35 or newer for the zdiff3 conflict style below
• -A package manager such as Homebrew, pacman, dnf, winget or Scoop
• -A terminal with 256-color or true-color support for delta's syntax themes

Steps

1. 1Step 1: Install lazygit and delta

   delta's package is usually called git-delta, but the command it installs is delta. On Debian 12 and Ubuntu 25.04 or older, apt has no lazygit package; download the release tarball from the lazygit GitHub releases page instead, and use the .deb from delta's releases page.

   sh

   # macOS or Linux with Homebrew
   $ brew install lazygit git-delta
   
   # Arch Linux
   $ sudo pacman -S lazygit git-delta

   sh

   # Windows
   $ winget install -e --id=JesseDuffield.lazygit
   $ winget install dandavison.delta

   sh

   $ lazygit --version
   $ delta --version

2. 2Step 2: Make delta git's pager

   These settings come from delta's README. core.pager sends git diff, git show and git log -p through delta. interactive.diffFilter colors the hunks in git add -p. navigate lets you jump between files with n and N. Set delta.light true instead of dark on a light terminal theme, or leave both out to let delta detect it.

   sh

   $ git config --global core.pager delta
   $ git config --global interactive.diffFilter 'delta --color-only'
   $ git config --global delta.navigate true
   $ git config --global delta.dark true
   $ git config --global merge.conflictStyle zdiff3

   gitconfig

   # Resulting ~/.gitconfig
   [core]
       pager = delta
   
   [interactive]
       diffFilter = delta --color-only
   
   [delta]
       navigate = true
       dark = true
   
   [merge]
       conflictStyle = zdiff3

3. 3Step 3: Check delta on the command line

   Run a diff in any repository with uncommitted changes. You should see file headers in boxes and highlighted code. For a two-column view, add side-by-side = true under [delta], or try it once with --side-by-side.

   sh

   $ git diff

   sh

   $ git diff | delta --side-by-side

4. 4Step 4: Render lazygit's diffs with delta

   lazygit shows diffs in its own main panel, so it needs to be told about delta separately. Find the config directory with lazygit --print-config-dir and edit config.yml there; on Linux that is ~/.config/lazygit/config.yml. You can also press e in the Status panel to open it.

   Keep --paging=never as in lazygit's docs, so delta prints the diff instead of starting its own pager; lazygit handles scrolling. Use --light instead of --dark on a light theme. delta's navigate option does not work inside lazygit.

   lazygit 0.64 and newer use diffRenderers. Versions 0.56 to 0.63 use pagers with a pager: key, and older releases use paging:. Newer releases migrate the old keys automatically.

   sh

   $ lazygit --print-config-dir

   yaml

   # config.yml, lazygit 0.64+
   git:
     diffRenderers:
       - command: delta --dark --paging=never

   yaml

   # config.yml, lazygit 0.56 to 0.63
   git:
     pagers:
       - pager: delta --dark --paging=never

   yaml

   # config.yml, lazygit 0.55 and older
   git:
     paging:
       colorArg: always
       pager: delta --dark --paging=never

5. 5Step 5: Stage files and single hunks

   Run lazygit inside a repository. The number keys 1 to 5 jump to the Status, Files, Branches, Commits and Stash panels.

   In the Files panel, Space stages or unstages the selected file and a stages everything. Press Enter on a file to open the staging view. There, Space stages the selected hunk, a switches between selecting whole hunks and single lines, v starts a range selection, and Tab switches between the unstaged and staged sides. Esc goes back to the file list.

   sh

   $ cd ~/code/my-repo
   $ lazygit

6. 6Step 6: Commit, amend and push

   With changes staged, press c in the Files panel, type the summary and press Enter. C opens your git editor instead. A amends the last commit with what is staged. P pushes the current branch and p pulls; if there is no upstream yet, lazygit asks for one.

7. 7Step 7: Rebase from the Commits panel

   Press 4 for the Commits panel. On any commit, r rewords the message, s squashes it into the commit below, f does a fixup (squash and drop the message), d drops it, and Ctrl-j or Ctrl-k moves it down or up. lazygit runs the interactive rebase for you.

   To change the contents of an older commit, select it and press e; lazygit stops the rebase there. Make your changes, stage them, press A in the Files panel to amend that commit, then press m and choose continue. The same m menu aborts or skips. To rebase your branch onto another, select the target in the Branches panel and press r.

   If a step goes wrong, z undoes the last git action using the reflog and Z redoes it. Undo covers commits and branches, not uncommitted working-tree changes.