Repository

The Diary Itself

Blobs are photos. Trees are tables of contents. Commits are diary entries. The repository is the diary itself -- the folder that holds everything.

When you run pygit init, it creates a .pygit folder:

my-project/
├── .pygit/
│   ├── objects/       ← all blobs, trees, and commits
│   ├── refs/
│   │   └── heads/     ← branch pointers
│   ├── HEAD           ← which branch you're on
│   └── index          ← the staging area
├── readme.txt
└── src/
    └── main.py

The Key Parts

File/Folder	What It Does	Analogy
objects/	Stores all blobs, trees, and commits	The photo album
refs/heads/	Branch pointers (name → commit hash)	Bookmarks
HEAD	Points to the current branch	"You are here"
index	The staging area	Shopping cart

Using PyGit

from pygit.repository import Repository

# Create a new repository.
repo = Repository.init("/path/to/project")

# Add files to the staging area.
repo.add("readme.txt")
repo.add("src/main.py")

# Create a commit.
repo.commit("Initial commit", author="Alice")

# View the log.
for entry in repo.log():
    print(f"{entry.commit_hash[:8]} {entry.message}")

What We Test

• init creates the .pygit directory structure.
• The HEAD file starts pointing to main.
• Objects are stored and retrieved correctly.
• The repository tracks the current branch.

Next Up

Before committing, you need to choose which changes to include. Head to Staging.