Soft Serve

Soft Serve is a self-hostable Git server designed for developers who prefer working from the command line. It provides an SSH-accessible terminal UI (TUI) for browsing and managing repositories, alongside standard Git cloning and pushing workflows.

Key Features

• SSH-accessible TUI for navigating repositories, commits, and files
• Clone and fetch via SSH, HTTP, or the native Git protocol (git daemon)
• Git LFS support (HTTP and SSH backends)
• Repository management over SSH, including creating repositories on demand
• Public-key SSH authentication with configurable access control
• Public/private repositories, optional anonymous access, and collaborator management
• User access tokens for authenticated operations
• Configurable via YAML config file and environment variables
• Supports SQLite (default) or PostgreSQL for metadata storage

Use Cases

• Run a lightweight internal Git server for small teams or homelabs
• Provide an SSH-first Git hosting experience for terminal-centric workflows
• Host repositories with Git LFS assets without deploying a full web forge

Limitations and Considerations

• Focused on SSH/TUI workflows; it is not a full Git forge with issues/PRs
• Git LFS pure-SSH transfer is disabled by default and may require enabling

Soft Serve is a strong fit when you want a simple, fast Git server with practical repository browsing and administration directly over SSH. Its single-binary deployment and flexible clone protocols make it easy to adopt for smaller, self-managed setups.