When I still used Git, I used to have a minimized `magit-init.el` that essentially did:

    (setq user-emacs-directory (format "~/.emacs.d/magit/%s/" emacs-version))
    (setq custom-file (concat user-emacs-directory "custom.el"))
    (setq make-backup-files nil)
    (setq auto-save-default nil)
    (setq create-lockfiles nil)
    (setq inhibit-startup-screen t)
    (setq initial-scratch-message nil)

    (require 'magit)
    (defun setup-standalone-magit ()
      (magit-project-status)
      (delete-other-windows))
    (add-hook 'after-init-hook 'setup-standalone-magit)

And a small wrapper (`~/.local/bin/magit`):

    #!/bin/sh
    if [ "$(git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree)" = "true" ]; then
        exec emacs -nw -q --no-splash -l "/path/to/magit-init.el"
    fi

It worked well for me because I can reuse all my keybindings (evil + leader keys with `general`) and my workflow is fully in the terminal. (I have since moved on to Jujutsu, and `jjui` is filling this gap for me right now, but it's not quite a magit-for-jj).

Lazygit is the closest thing I've seen; it's what I use on remote hosts when TRAMP-ing into Magit would be too painful.

lazygit is too slow for me.

>i split my time between IntelliJ and vscode

The IntelliJ git client is my favorite by far, I am curious what do you not like about it?

It's not that i don't like it. It's that I've got 10-15 years (i think) of muscle memory with magit

Honestly, magit is just a masterclass in UI design. It makes most everything incredibly easy to do while still giving you the ability to tweak things if you need to.

I was a loyal magit user for a decade. Now I use jujutsu from the command line. It's actually really nice.

If you are on Linux/Gnome, try out Stage:

https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.aganzha.Stage

I've never found a decent magit replacement since leaving emacs over to vim. There is a Vim attempt at a magit clone, but it is buggy as hell.

It doesn't have the (any?) diffing capabilities of magit, so it's not usable for me yet.

FWIW the lem editor (basically emacs in common lisp) has its own version of magit, called legit.

https://github.com/lem-project/lem/blob/main/extensions/legi...

But I guess if you're leaving GNU emacs, you're probably not eager to jump into another emacsen.

Thanks, I left due to rsi from the chords.

I mean, both have the ability to do modal or CUA combinations instead.

I know, I tried modal emacs for a while there.