Tower PRO for Mac

Version 17.0-545 sharpens one useful detail: Fully Merged detection now reads local branches against merged pull requests from hosting services, including squash and rebase merges. The result is a repository view that reflects what actually happened, not just what Git recorded.

1. Open a project with several feature branches and drag a branch onto another to preview the merge.
2. Check the file history to see where a change came from, then undo it with a single action if needed.
3. Use submodules without leaving the main window; nested repositories stay visible and manageable.
4. For larger teams, enable Automatic Branch Management or Stacked Branches to keep long-running work in order.

On an Apple Silicon or Intel Mac running macOS 12 or later, Tower sits comfortably beside design and video tools: it handles the version control quietly while Xcode, Figma, or Blender stay in the foreground. The interface abstracts Git's complexity well, and its drag-and-drop actions suit a visual way of working.

A motion-graphics fix without disturbing the rendering branch

Imagine a Tuesday morning in the Ikebukuro studio. A video editor notices that a motion-graphics template breaks at 120 fps — a small fix, but one that shouldn't touch the rendering branch currently being reviewed. Tower opens to the repository; the sidebar shows six local branches, two of them carrying the Fully Merged badge after yesterday's squash merge into main. No guessing needed.

The workflow that follows is quiet and linear. A new branch is created from main with a right-click, given the name fix/120fps-template. A few files change in DaVinci Resolve, and Tower's working-copy view lists them immediately: two .setting files modified, one test clip added. Staging the relevant files happens file by file — the one-line staging panel keeps it quick. A commit message is written, the commit pushed to the remote, and a pull request opened on GitHub. Back in Tower, the branch list refreshes; once the PR is merged and closed, that local branch will pick up the Fully Merged badge almost straight away, even after a rebase merge. No branch clutter, no mental checklist of what's already upstream.

The whole session takes under ten minutes. The motion file is fixed, the rendering branch remains untouched, and the repository stays readable.

Side-by-side diff view: a spatial layout for designers

Out of the box, Tower is restrained, but a few preferences reward early attention. Under General, switch the diff view to a side-by-side layout: the visual comparison suits designers and anyone who reads changes spatially. In the Git Config tab, set the default merge tool to one you already know — FileMerge, Kaleidoscope, or whatever sits in /Applications. Tower respects the choice immediately.

For the studio setup, turn on Automatically prune remote branches on fetch. It prevents the sidebar from accumulating references to branches deleted on GitHub or GitLab, which matters when three people share a repository and branch names come and go by lunchtime. Under Commit, enable "Show inline blame in file diff": it overlays authorship subtly, line by line, without opening a separate view. It's a small detail, but one that makes tracing the origin of a change feel like reading footnotes rather than running an investigation.

Alongside other Git clients

Compared to Fork, Tower's interface carries more structure. Fork is leaner; its window feels closer to a text editor's minimalism, while Tower presents a richer workspace with history, submodules, and branching logic visible in one frame. For a visual designer, that density is an advantage — fewer clicks to reach the same information.

Set against GitKraken, Tower is entirely native. GitKraken runs on Electron and brings a cross-platform consistency that teams split between macOS and Windows might prefer, but it lacks the tight macOS integration: no Quick Look, no native text rendering, a slightly detached feel when switching between it and Xcode or Sketch. Tower, by contrast, uses standard Mac text views and respects system-wide shortcuts without translating them through a web layer.

Where Sublime Merge appeals to the keyboard purist — fast, terse, aimed at power users who memorise Git command sequences — Tower leans toward the visual and the deliberate. Drag-and-drop merging, one-line staging, and the new Fully Merged detection reward a workflow where actions are seen and confirmed rather than typed from memory. Both are competent; the choice turns on whether you prefer your version control to feel like a code editor or a design tool.

Tower 17 for Mac improves Fully Merged detection in two ways: local branches are now matched against merged pull requests from hosting services, and a branch can be marked Fully Merged after squash or rebase merges.

• macOS 12 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac