Read 2026-10-04
gitbutlerapp/gitbutler: technical due diligence, read from its repository
What Borehole read in gitbutlerapp/gitbutler's code and history at 0f33b90: its licence, security advisories, releases, review practice, tests, dependencies and operations. Every finding cites the file and line it rests on. The full report also covers the team and asks the questions the code cannot answer.
| Dimension | Rating |
|---|---|
| Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance | strong |
| Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity | strong |
| Product & Engineering Maturity | strong |
| Security & Reliability Posture | adequate |
| Observability & Operations | not assessable |
| Fit with the Acquirer | not assessable |
What the repository says
LICENSE.md:1: The licence is FSL-1.1-MIT: source available, not open sourceLICENSE.md: Relicensed: FSL-1.0-MIT → FSL-1.1-MIT (2024-03-12)
Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance
strongcrates/but-forge/src/review.rs is 4,740 lines, 58× this codebase's median file
adequateThe median source file here is 81 lines. 60 files exceed 1,000 lines, the largest being 4,740. Size is not a defect on its own — some problems genuinely live in one place — but these are where merge conflicts, review fatigue and single-owner knowledge concentrate, and they are the first thing that slows an inheriting engineer down.
crates/but-forge/src/review.rs:1 — 4,740 lines (58× median) |
crates/but/src/id/tests.rs:1 — 4,135 lines (51× median) |
apps/lite/ui/src/routes/project/$id/workspace/Details.tsx:1 — 3,926 lines (48× median) |
crates/but-github/src/client.rs:1 — 3,556 lines (43× median) |
crates/but/src/command/legacy/status/tui/cursor/tests.rs:1 — 2,844 lines (35× median) |
Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity
strongTests are retried until they pass
adequateThe suite is configured to retry failing tests (apps/web/playwright.config.ts). A retry turns a flaky test green without saying why it failed, so a green build means the tests passed eventually. Ask how many retries a typical run needs, and which tests need them.
apps/web/playwright.config.ts:10 — test retry |
Product & Engineering Maturity
strongNo finding.
Security & Reliability Posture
adequate1 credential-shaped string in the tree sit in tests, examples, documentation or local development settings
adequateStrings shaped like credentials appear only where fakes are usual: test fixtures, examples, documentation, placeholders and local stacks. They are almost always fakes. Ask someone to confirm that none of them works anywhere, because a real key in a development file is still a real key.
| GitHub token, where fakes are usual |
3 environment files are committed
adequateapps/desktop/.env.nightly, apps/desktop/.env.production, apps/web/.env are tracked in git. Environment files are where credentials usually live, and committing one usually means nobody decided how secrets reach the running application. Whatever is in it is in the history for good. Check 05.1 says whether it holds anything credential-shaped.
apps/desktop/.env.nightly — committed environment file |
apps/desktop/.env.production — committed environment file |
apps/web/.env — committed environment file |
The build runs third-party code it does not pin
adequate1 step pipes a download straight into a shell. Tags have been moved to malicious commits in real supply-chain attacks, and a piped script is whatever the server returns that minute. Pinning to a commit is the fix, and it is small.
scripts/install.sh:6 — download piped into a shell |
47 locked dependencies have published vulnerabilities, 30 high or critical in what ships
adequate47 of 3,221 locked dependencies match 132 published advisories in OSV, 53 of them rated high or critical. A lockfile says which version is installed, not whether the flawed code is reachable from this product, so each needs a look. Most are fixed by an upgrade, and the advisory names the version. This lockfile pins development tools alongside what ships and does not say which is which, so some of these may never reach a user.
pnpm-lock.yaml — axios 1.13.5: GHSA-35jp-ww65-95wh (high), fixed in 1.16.0 |
pnpm-lock.yaml — brace-expansion 1.1.14: GHSA-3jxr-9vmj-r5cp (high), fixed in 1.1.16 |
pnpm-lock.yaml — brace-expansion 5.0.6: GHSA-3jxr-9vmj-r5cp (high), fixed in 5.0.7 |
40 places insert HTML from a variable without sanitising it
adequate40 places set HTML from a value that is neither a literal nor passed through a sanitiser. Where the value can come from a user, that is stored cross-site scripting, and it is the first thing a buyer's security review looks for in a frontend.
apps/desktop/src/components/branch/CreateBranchModal.svelte:173 — HTML from a variable |
apps/desktop/src/components/branch/CreateBranchModal.svelte:175 — HTML from a variable |
apps/desktop/src/components/branch/CreateBranchModal.svelte:208 — HTML from a variable |
The production build publishes source maps
adequateThe build configuration emits source maps for production, so the original source, with its comments and structure, is downloadable by every visitor. Upload them to an error tracker and keep them off the public server instead.
apps/desktop/vite.config.ts:66 — source maps in a production build |
apps/lite/electron/vite.config.ts:25 — source maps in a production build |
apps/web/vite.config.ts:39 — source maps in a production build |
The licence is FSL-1.1-MIT: source available, not open source
adequateLICENSE.md grants FSL-1.1-MIT: source available, not open source; a competing commercial product or service is not allowed; each version becomes MIT two years after its release. The reading comes from the licence's own title and clauses. Whether the terms fit the buyer's intended use, and whether any paid licence transfers with the code, is a question for counsel and the licensor.
LICENSE.md:1 — 110 lines, FSL-1.1-MIT |
Relicensed: FSL-1.0-MIT → FSL-1.1-MIT (2024-03-12)
adequateThe root licence changed 1 time(s). Code taken under earlier terms stays under them; check which terms any fork or customer relied on.
LICENSE.md — FSL-1.0-MIT from 2024-01-11 |
LICENSE.md — FSL-1.1-MIT from 2024-03-12 |
1 advisory against this project in the last 24 months, 1 high or critical
adequateThe newest was published on 2026-05-08. A project that publishes advisories is telling its users about its fixes, and the count and pace say how much security work it carries. Whether 1 of them are fixed in the code you ship could not be told from this history: its version is only known to be at least 0.22.3. Answer lives in: the release you run, set against each fixed version.
| 2026-05-08: GHSA-xpmj-536r-9fc6 (critical), fixed in 0.19.7: Link injection via forge integration enables arbitrary script execution |
Observability & Operations
not assessableNot rated: only 5 of 16 checks could reach a conclusion here; the rest do not apply to this repository or could not read it.
Fit with the Acquirer
not assessableNot rated: structurally not assessable from a repository.
Read more, or read your own
The full report on gitbutlerapp/gitbutler: every dimension, the questions for the room, and the audit log.
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