Getting started

stet is a read-only companion TUI for inspecting an agent's changes. The agent runs in one terminal pane; stet sits in the next one and answers the questions you would otherwise open an editor for: what files are in this repo, what changed, what was touched most recently, and whether there are errors in what changed.

It shows you the repo, the diff, and the problems. It never reviews, approves, or talks to the agent. You decide what to say next.

What you can do

Reading files & diffs

Read any file, view changes as diffs, fold by structure, and keep your place across tabs.

Search & navigation

Jump to any file, find within the open file, and search the whole repo.

Code intelligence

Go to definition, references, implementations, call hierarchy, hover, and problems.

Scopes & worktrees

Choose what the diff compares and switch between git worktrees in place.

Themes

Preview and switch themes live, then make one permanent in your config.

Install

A standalone binary for macOS and Linux. No runtime needed.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jimmy-guzman/stet/main/install.sh | bash

Works with npm, bun, pnpm, and yarn. Pulls a prebuilt binary.

npm i -g @jimmy.codes/stet

brew install jimmy-guzman/tap/stet

Usage

Run stet inside any git repository.

stet            # whole repo, uncommitted vs HEAD
stet main       # compare against another ref
stet --staged   # start in the staged scope
stet --unstaged # start in the unstaged scope
stet --no-icons # plain tree without Nerd Font file-type icons
stet --wrap     # wrap long lines in the viewer instead of scrolling them horizontally
stet --editor "nvim +{line} {file}"       # terminal editor for the e key
stet --ide    "code --goto {file}:{line}" # GUI/IDE for the o key

The git-backed file tree renders first. Diagnostics arrive later as decorations, so the basic view stays useful while checks are still running.

Nerd Font icons

The tree shows a file-type icon next to each file. These are Nerd Font glyphs and only render with a Nerd Font selected in your terminal; without one they appear as empty boxes, so pass --no-icons to fall back to a plain tree.

Press ? at any time to see every keybinding, or read the keybindings reference. See configuration to set a permanent theme and editor.

Upgrade

stet upgrade

Updates stet to the latest release using whichever channel it was installed through: a standalone install re-runs the install script, an npm install runs npm, and a Homebrew install runs brew upgrade. It checks the latest GitHub release first and reports stet X.Y.Z is already up to date without running anything when you are current.

stet also checks for a newer release in the background while it runs, and prints a one-line notice on clean exit when one is available. The check is non-blocking and never interrupts the session.

Requirements

git
a clipboard tool for copy (y): pbcopy on macOS (built in), or wl-copy, xclip, or xsel on Linux
a Nerd Font for the tree's file-type icons (optional; use --no-icons without one)