# Gitness — Open-Source Self-Hosted Git Platform by Harness

> A lightweight, high-performance Git hosting platform with built-in CI/CD pipelines, code reviews, and developer workflows in a single binary.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# Gitness — Open-Source Self-Hosted Git Platform by Harness

## Quick Use
```bash
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v /data:/data harness/gitness
```

## Introduction
Gitness is a developer platform built by Harness that combines Git hosting with integrated CI/CD pipelines. It ships as a single Go binary with an embedded database, making it straightforward to deploy and maintain for teams that want full control over their source code infrastructure.

## What Gitness Does
- Hosts Git repositories with a clean web UI for browsing code and history
- Provides built-in CI/CD pipelines defined as YAML in the repository
- Supports pull requests with inline code review and approval workflows
- Offers repository-level and organization-level access controls
- Includes a container registry for storing and distributing images

## Architecture Overview
Gitness is written in Go and ships as a single statically linked binary. It embeds SQLite by default for metadata storage and manages Git objects directly on disk. The web frontend is a React application bundled into the binary. Pipeline execution uses a container-based runner that can scale horizontally for parallel jobs.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Run via Docker or download the binary for Linux, macOS, or Windows
- Data persists in a single volume (`/data`) containing repos and the database
- Configure via environment variables: `GITNESS_URL_BASE`, `GITNESS_HTTP_PORT`
- Swap SQLite for PostgreSQL for larger deployments with `GITNESS_DATABASE_DRIVER`
- Place behind a reverse proxy with TLS for production use

## Key Features
- Single-binary deployment with zero external dependencies
- Integrated pipelines eliminate the need for a separate CI/CD server
- Pull request workflows with reviewers, merge checks, and status gates
- Built-in secrets management for pipeline credentials
- Lightweight resource footprint suitable for small teams and edge deployments

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Gitea** — mature self-hosted Git with large ecosystem but no built-in CI/CD
- **GitLab CE** — comprehensive DevOps platform but heavier on resources
- **Forgejo** — community fork of Gitea focused on governance; also lacks built-in CI
- **OneDev** — self-hosted Git with CI, but uses a Java stack
- **Gogs** — minimal Git hosting; pipelines require external tooling

## FAQ
**Q: How does Gitness compare to Gitea in resource usage?**
A: Both are lightweight Go binaries. Gitness adds pipeline execution, which uses more resources only when pipelines run.

**Q: Can I migrate repositories from GitHub or GitLab?**
A: Yes. Gitness supports importing repositories via Git clone URLs and can mirror external repos.

**Q: Is Gitness production-ready?**
A: Gitness is actively maintained by Harness. For large-scale production, use PostgreSQL as the database backend and run the pipeline runner on dedicated infrastructure.

**Q: Does it support branch protection rules?**
A: Yes. You can require pull request reviews, status checks, and restrict who can push to protected branches.

## Sources
- https://github.com/harness/gitness
- https://gitness.com/docs

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/7027a0a1-3e67-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source