What it does

Performance

How it works

What else it fixes

Staying current

Try it

aleixrodriala / GithubDesktopWSL

GitHub Desktop with native WSL support — 6-27x faster git operations

GitHub Desktop WSL

The problem If you use GitHub Desktop with repos stored in WSL, you know the pain. Every operation takes 10-30 seconds. Switching branches? 30 seconds. Fetching? 10 seconds. Even git status on a tiny repo takes 40ms+ because Desktop runs git.exe on Windows, which accesses WSL files through the 9P protocol — every file stat is a round-trip across the VM boundary. Meanwhile, VS Code solved this years ago with the Remote WSL extension. It runs a server inside WSL and talks to it over a socket. Fast, native, no 9P overhead. I wanted the same thing for GitHub Desktop. So I built it. GithubDesktopWSL is a fork of GitHub Desktop that runs a lightweight daemon inside WSL. The daemon handles git commands and file operations natively over TCP. Desktop connects to it instead of going through 9P. The daemon is bundled in the installer. When you open a WSL repo, it deploys and starts automatically. There's nothing to configure. The ~40ms floor in official Desktop is the cost of launching git.exe through 9P. The daemon has ~2ms overhead (TCP round-trip + message framing). The actual git work is the same. wsl-git-daemon (C, ~550 lines) — persistent daemon inside WSL. Listens on localhost TCP, handles git commands and file operations (read, write, stat, unlink). Token-based auth. wsl.ts (TypeScript, ~490 lines) — Desktop-side client. Detects WSL paths, manages daemon lifecycle (deploy, start, restart), implements the binary protocol, provides drop-in wrappers for fs operations. core.ts patch (1 if-block) — all git commands in Desktop flow through one function. A single if (isWSLPath(path)) routes WSL repos through the daemon. Windows repos are completely untouched. It's patch-based — 6 patch files applied on top of upstream releases via git apply. CI checks for new upstream releases every 6 hours, applies patches, builds, and publishes automatically. So it stays current with official Desktop features. Installs side-by-side with official Desktop. You can keep both. Download the installer from the releases page, run it, open a WSL repo. That's it. Would love feedback, especially if you hit any issues with specific WSL distros or repo setups. Think of it like the VS Code Remote WSL extension but for GitHub Desktop. A fork of GitHub Desktop that makes WSL repositories work properly — 6-27x faster git operations, working SSH keys, and no more CRLF issues. Download the latest release — installs side-by-side with official GitHub Desktop Official GitHub Desktop can't handle repos inside WSL. When you open a \\wsl.localhost\... path: Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse