Repo & org channels
A channel scoped to acme/sample-repo, gated by your real GitHub permission on that repo — not by an invite list someone has to maintain.
GitHub OAuth only · core features free GitHub OAuth only
Your GitHub network is already your contact list.
GitChat turns mutual follows into conversations. Sign in once, and everyone who follows you — and whom you follow back — is already there. No invites to chase, no directory to build, no new identity.
Mutual follows become conversations. No invites to chase, no new identity.
- No password
- No separate signup
- Revocable from GitHub
No password · revocable from GitHub
GitChat: a sidebar listing your mutual follows and a thread with a rich GitHub profile card
18
URL kinds that render as a card, not a link
0
writes we ever make to your repositories
1 click
from a GitHub page to the matching channel
1 tap
to archive a thread — search still finds it
Mutual follow is the whole access model
You can only be reached by developers you already follow back. There is no username search that opens a DM, no cold outreach, no spam surface — the graph GitHub already maintains is the permission system.
You can only be reached by developers you already follow back.
- Follow each other on GitHub and the conversation already exists — nothing to accept.
- Not mutual yet? Send one contact request. They approve once, or never hear from you again.
- Block, mute and privacy controls live in Settings, in the same shell as the chat.
Everything a dev conversation needs
Threads that understand GitHub URLs, channels scoped to a repo, and a browser extension that follows you onto github.com.
Command palette
⌘K searches conversations, messages, people and repos from anywhere in the app. Escape closes it. No mouse required.
Mentions that resolve
Type @ and autocomplete pulls from your mutual network. Mentions land in a dedicated view with their own unread count.
Bookmarks & history
Star any message to find it later. Archive a thread when it is done, so the sidebar stays about this week.
Synced GitHub teams
Paid orgs mirror GitHub teams and contributors into channels automatically, so membership never drifts from the repo.
Nothing written to your code
GitChat reads your profile, follow graph and repository access. It never pushes, comments or changes anything, and you can revoke it from GitHub at any time.
Rich previews
Paste a GitHub URL. Get the context, not a link.
Profiles, issues, pull requests, files and plain articles all render as cards inside the thread — state, labels, diff stats and all. Nobody has to leave the conversation to know what you meant.
From sign-in to first message
Under a minute, and nothing to configure.
1
OAuth
Authorize with GitHub
One click. No password, no separate account — your developer identity is the login.
2
Network
Your contacts appear
GitChat syncs the follow graph and surfaces every mutual follow, ready to message.
3
Chat
Talk in context
Paste issues, PRs, files and links — they render as cards, in the thread, for everyone.
Chrome extension
The channel opens where the code lives
Install the extension and a GitChat side panel rides along on github.com. Open a repo, read an issue, and the matching channel is one click away — same thread, same people, same rich cards.
Add to Chrome
Manifest v3 · read-only page access
Every URL becomes a card
Eighteen renderers. Paste a repo, an issue, a PR, a file, a profile, a video, a track, a plain article — the thread shows what it is.
-
Repository
github.com/{owner}/{repo}
-
Issue
…/issues/{n}
-
Pull request
…/pull/{n}
-
User & org
github.com/{login}
-
Issue / PR lists
…/issues · …/pulls
-
File with preview
…/blob/{branch}/{path}
-
Article & link
any https:// URL
-
YouTube
youtube.com · youtu.be
-
Spotify
open.spotify.com/{type}/{id}
-
Files, media & GIFs
image · video · audio · pdf
Where this actually fits
Issue threads are permanent and public. Team chat is private but has no idea what your repo is. GitChat sits in between.
| Where this actually fits | GitChat | Issue comments | Generic team chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can reach you | Mutual follows only | Anyone with a GitHub account | Whoever the admin invited |
| Permanence | Archive a thread when you are done | Permanent and public | Forever, and unsearchable |
| Understands GitHub URLs | 18 card renderers | Only inside the same repo | A title and a favicon |
| Channel membership | Derived from repo permission | Not a channel at all | Maintained by hand, drifts |
| Identity | Your GitHub account | Your GitHub account | A separate login to manage |
| Where it lives | Side panel on github.com | The issue page | Another tab entirely |
Security
We never write to your code
GitChat asks for the GitHub scopes it needs to read your profile, organisations and repository access — and never pushes, comments or changes anything. Link previews run behind an SSRF guard, uploads are validated strictly, and you can revoke the whole thing from GitHub in two clicks.
user:emailread:orgrepo
Read, never write
Profile, email, organisations and repository access. GitChat never modifies a repository.
SSRF-guarded previews
Link fetching refuses internal and private address space.
Revocable tokens
The extension gets its own named token you can kill from Settings.
Strict uploads
MIME and size validated server-side; attachments served through the app.
Questions developers actually ask
Because it removes the entire cold-outreach surface. GitHub already knows who you trust enough to follow; GitChat treats that as the permission boundary instead of asking you to rebuild it. If you need to reach someone outside it, you send one contact request.
Your profile, your email, your organisations and — so repo channels can be gated — your repository access (the `repo` scope, because GitHub has no read-only scope for private repositories). GitChat never writes to a repository, and you can revoke access from your GitHub settings at any time.
Direct conversations, private messages, contacts and notifications are free. Paid plans cover organisation features: per-repository groups, synced GitHub teams and automatic contributor sync.
Archive a thread from its menu and it leaves the sidebar. Bookmarked messages stay reachable, and search still finds archived threads.
No — the web app is complete on its own. The extension just puts the matching channel in a side panel while you are already reading code on github.com.
Your contacts are already there. Go say something. Your contacts are already there.
Sign in with GitHub — core features are free, and we never write to your code.
Get started with GitHub