GitSync – Keep your (private) modules in sync with GitHub

[Mikel]

Hey folks,

we at frameless Media often develop across multiple devices – laptop, tablet, sometimes even from a phone with an AI coding assistant. Git is our single source of truth, but getting those changes onto a staging or production server has always been annoying. Especially on shared hosting where there's no SSH, no git, and git-based FTP via YAML configs is more hassle than it's worth.

We also frequently need to test new modules directly on shared hosting environments where the server setup differs from our local machines. Manually uploading files after every push? No thanks. So we built GitSync. 🎯

TL;DR:

✅ Link any installed module to its GitHub repo
✅ See all branches and their latest commits
✅ One-click sync – only changed files are downloaded
✅ GitHub Webhook support – auto-sync on every push
✅ Works on shared hosting – no git, no SSH, no cron
✅ Private repo support via GitHub Token

What's the difference to ProcessUpgrade?
ProcessUpgrade is great for updating published modules from the PW modules directory. But it tracks releases, not branches. During development, when you're pushing to `develop` or `feature/xyz` ten times a day, you need something different.

That's where GitSync comes in. 🚀

How it works

1. Install the module, add your GitHub Token (optional for public repos)
2. Go to GitSync > Add Module, pick any installed module from the dropdown
3. GitSync searches GitHub for matching repositories automatically
4. Link the module to a repo + branch – done

From now on, you can sync with one click. GitSync compares file hashes locally and remotely (using the same SHA1 blob hashing that git uses internally) and only downloads what actually changed. No full re-downloads, minimal API usage.

Want it fully automatic? Set up a GitHub Webhook – enter a secret in the module config, point the webhook to `https://yoursite.com/gitsync-webhook/`, and every push triggers an automatic sync. The module overview shows a ⚡ webhook badge on auto-synced modules so you always know what's wired up.

The real power: remote development with AI 📱
You're on the train, phone in hand, chatting with Claude via the Claude app. Claude writes code, commits to a feature branch on GitHub. GitSync picks up the webhook and syncs the module to your dev server. Automatically. You open the edited webpage on your phone, check the result, give feedback, iterate. The entire development loop without ever opening a laptop. 🤯

This works just as well for teams: multiple developers push to GitHub from different machines, and the staging server always reflects the latest state – no manual deploys, no SSH sessions, no FTP. We've been using a prototype internally for a few weeks now and it's become part of our daily workflow – especially the webhook auto-sync is something we don't want to miss anymore. As proof of concept we built the public release entirely as described above 😃

Technical details for the curious
The differential sync works like GIT itself: every file's content is hashed as `sha1("blob {size}\0{content}")`. GitHub's Trees API returns these hashes for the entire branch in a single request. GitSync computes the same hash locally. Matching hash = identical file = skip.

Requirements
ProcessWire >= 3.0 and PHP >= 7.4 with cURL

Module and Docs
👉 GitHub: https://github.com/frameless-at/GitSync
👉 Module Directory: https://processwire.com/modules/git-sync/

Would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and edge cases we might not have considered!
Cheers, Mike

[Mikel]

Update: Improved "Link Module" UX

We had an internal discussion about the "Link Module" interface and optimized how the different states are handled:

Match found – The repo is resolved and ready to link. The green link opens the repository on GitHub so you can verify it's the right one before linking. This appears instantly when the module declares its GitHub URL in getModuleInfo() or has been resolved before (cached), otherwise after a quick GitHub search.

No repo found – ProModules like RepeaterMatrix have no public GitHub repo. GitSync shows a clear "No repositories found." instead of false matches.

Multiple repos – When a module exists in several repos (forks, different maintainers), you get a list to pick from.

Selected, with "change" – After picking one, a "change" link lets you switch. It only appears when there are actually alternatives.

Other improvements:

• single results are now auto-selected (no unnecessary click),
• the GitHub search uses Code Search API for exact .module.php filename matching (works even when repo name ≠ class name),
• and results are cached client-side so re-selecting a module is instant.

Cheers, Mike