Twig

Twig is a self-hosted Git server with a web interface for browsing and managing repositories. It is a single Rust/Actix-web application backed by a local SQLite-compatible database (Turso/libSQL) and Git's smart-HTTP backend.

Features

• Public namespace and repository browsing, with search, Markdown rendering, file browsing, commit history, license display, optional slide presentations, and an optional long-form Paper reader configured in .twig.toml.
• Git clone/fetch over HTTP; pushes use HTTP Basic Auth. Repositories can be made private in .twig.toml.
• Account signup by one-time invite, session-based web login, owned namespaces, and repository creation from the UI or Git push.
• Settings for updating email, moving repositories between your namespaces, and deleting repositories/namespaces.
• Optional endpoint test runner (TEST_USER) and read-only database browser (ADMIN_USER).
• API endpoints for the application version (GET /api/version) and a MessagePack namespace/repository tree (GET /api/tree).

Quick start

Run locally with mise:

mise run run

The development configuration sets PROJECT_ROOT=tests/git/srv, RESET_DB=true, PORT=8080, and TEST_USER=admin. With RESET_DB=true, Twig resets its local database and seeds an admin / admin account for local browsing. Do not use this mode for persistent data.

The container listens on port 80. Persist both the Git root and database file when deploying, and set SESSION_KEY to a stable secret so browser sessions survive restarts. For example:

docker run --rm -p 8080:80 \
  -e PROJECT_ROOT=/data/git \
  -e DB_PATH=/data/twig.db \
  -e SESSION_KEY='replace-with-a-long-random-secret' \
  -e API_KEY='replace-with-a-secret' \
  -v twig-data:/data \
  silenloc/twig

See Environment Variables for the complete configuration reference.

Documentation

Document	Description
API	Version and namespace/repository tree endpoints
Git Backend	Clone, fetch, push, authentication, and repository creation
Web UI	Pages, account access, settings, and optional admin tools
Environment Variables	Runtime configuration

These Markdown files are also embedded in the application and shown under Information → Docs at /_info.

Authentication overview

Action	Authentication
Browse public namespaces/repositories	None
Read a private repository	HTTP Basic Auth for Git; web login for the UI
Generate a signup invite	API_KEY entered on the invite page
Sign up	Unused one-time invite
Create namespace/repository in the UI	Web session; repository creation also requires an email on the account
Push over Git HTTP	HTTP Basic Auth and access to the namespace
Read database tables	Logged-in user named by ADMIN_USER
Use the endpoint test page	Logged-in user named by TEST_USER, or a valid session PIN

Git reads are public for public repositories. An authenticated push can create a missing namespace and repository; the new namespace belongs to the pushing user. Namespaces and repositories created in the web UI belong to the logged-in user.