FAQ

Short, honest answers; each links to the page with the full story.

Does Birch run on Linux?

No. Birch supports Windows 10/11 (x64) and macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon and Intel). Linux is intentionally unsupported. See Installation.

Does Birch send my code to Anthropic?

There are two separate paths, and neither runs without you:

• Anthropic API features — AI code review, commit-message generation, conflict suggestions, and comment-fix suggestions send the relevant diff or content to the Anthropic API, and only work if you have set the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable. They run when you invoke them; the one background case, automatic review of new PRs, is off by default.
• Agent workspaces run your agent CLI (claude, codex, …) in a terminal. That traffic goes wherever your CLI sends it, under your own account — Birch is just the terminal it runs in.

If you configure neither, nothing leaves your machine. Full picture: AI in Birch.

Can I use Birch without any AI?

Yes. Birch is a complete Git client — commits, history, branches, diffs, conflict resolution, pull requests, and issue-tracker integrations all work with no API key and no agent CLI installed. The AI surfaces simply stay hidden or inert.

Where are stash / reflog / bisect / interactive rebase?

They exist in the app but most currently have no way to be reached:

Warning

There is currently no way to reach these features in the shipped build — the menu that hosted them is hidden. They are documented because the features exist in the app and a new entry point is planned.

What is reachable today: the Stash tab on a worktree’s Git view (list, Apply, Pop, Drop — creating a stash is what lacks an entry point), and blame / file history from the Changes tab’s file context menu. Details: Power tools.

How do I get beta builds?

Set the update.channel setting to beta (default stable). Pre-release version tags publish to the beta channel, and the updater picks the channel up on its next check — Birch checks for updates roughly every 6 hours.

Note

The release channel is currently a settings key only; a UI switch is planned.

See Updates & channels.

How much disk do workspaces use, and how do I clean up?

Each workspace is a git worktree — a full checkout of your repository (sharing the git object database with your main clone), stored under Birch’s data folder. Worktrees are deliberately kept on disk after the agent exits, so they accumulate until you delete them.

Clean up by deleting workspaces you’re done with — from the sidebar in the app, or with birch worktree rm — which removes the worktree from disk and from Birch. Folder locations and sizes: Storage & data.

Can I delete Birch’s data folder?

You can (~/Library/Application Support/birch/ on macOS, %APPDATA%\birch\ on Windows), but know what’s inside first.

Danger

Your agent workspaces’ worktrees live inside the data folder. Deleting it destroys any uncommitted or unpushed work sitting in a workspace. Push or copy out anything you care about first, and quit Birch before deleting.

What you lose: the list of registered repositories, all workspace records and their worktrees, settings, Inbox state, AI artifacts (review reports, fix suggestions), downloaded task images, and logs.

What you keep: your own repositories on disk are untouched — Birch registers them where they are and never moves them. You’ll need to re-add repositories and reconnect your provider accounts afterwards.