SourceTree Keyboard Shortcuts
Originally (back in 2015) this post was a record of my attempts to brute force the discovery of Sourcetree keyboard shortcuts, because they were not well-documented by Atlassian (or anyone else I could find at the time).
Now, in 2020, the keyboard shortcuts are readily available both in-program (on each context menu item) as well as a few easily located resources online. So I’ll repurpose this blog post instead to surface some of the more useful keyboard shortcuts (this list is no longer exhaustive), and explain how I extend the keyboard shortcuts Sourcetree provides natively.
These are the Mac keyboard shortcuts (although I suspect the Windows equivalents are more often than not, the same but with ctrl instead of cmd).
Navigation & Menus
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| File Status Screen | cmd + 1 |
| History Screen | cmd + 2 |
| Search Screen | cmd + 3 |
| New repo | cmd + n |
| Hide/show sidebar | cmd + shift + k |
| Repository details | cmd + shift + i |
| Open file browser (fastest way to switch repositories) | cmd + o |
Staging & Commit Operations
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Commit All… Screen | cmd + shift + c |
| Commit options | cmd + shift + o |
| Reset Selected File | cmd + shift + r |
| Diff | cmd + d |
| Remove Selected File | cmd + delete |
| Search | cmd + shift + h |
| Refresh | cmd + r |
Removing and resetting files
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Delete | cmd + delete |
| Reset file to staged version | cmd + alt + R |
Find
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Find (file by name or path) | cmd + f |
| Find Next | cmd + g |
| Find Previous | cmd + shit + g |
| Use selection to find | cmd + e |
Branch Operations
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Stash | cmd + shift + s |
| Add or Remove Tag | cmd + shift + t |
| Branch | cmd + shift + b |
| Merge | cmd + shift + m |
Repository Operations
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Fetch | cmd + shift + f |
| Pull from repository | cmd + shift + l |
| Open remote in web browser | cmd + shift + w |
| Open pull request | cmd + alt + p |
Window (Normal Mac Shortcuts)
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Quit | cmd + q |
| Close window | cmd + w |
| Hide | cmd + h |
| Minimise | cmd + m |
| Settings | cmd + , |
| Undo | Cmd + z |
| Select All | Cmd + a |
| Emoji & Synbols | Cmd + ctrl + space |
Creating your own keyboard shortcuts
Sourcetree is no different than any other Mac application, in that you can define your own keyboard shortcuts for system menu items.
Identify the menu item that either has no keyboard shortcut, or one that you don’t like, and take note of its name.
Open System Preferences, select the Keyboard option, then the Shortcuts tab, followed by the App Shortcuts menu item. Click the + button, Select Sourcetree as the Application, your menu name as Menu Title and define your keyboard shortcut. Close System Preferences and reopen Sourcetree to use.
Going beyond pre-defined actions and navigating menu items
I use Vimac to navigate the parts of the Sourcetree UI and perform actions that do not have convenient keyboard shortcuts or menu items.
It provides the following keyboard shortcuts (each is configurable):
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Activate | ctrl + space |
| Right click | Hold shift when typing macro |
| Double click | Hold cmd when typing macro |
There are alternatives such as Keyboard Maestro (Paid software) that may be better suited to your preferences.