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8 Months and Counting.
4 min

The (harsh) reality of building a product from scratch.
A recent image of the RelaGit client, with a preview of some of the new features.

This has been brief but don’t worry: more is coming soon.

GIF showing a man shrugging and saying 'Well, that was a fucking lie'

In my experience, the hardest commodity to keep ahold of is motivation. Sure, if you’re sponsored by a massive company or salaried at a FAANG, you can keep going as long as you like. But for a solo dev, developing things on the side, it’s a lot harder.

I made that last blog post in the honeymoon phase of the project, I had a plan, I had a vision, and I had a goal.

And then I started really working on it.

Turns out, building a git client from the ground up is hard. There are countless features to implement and using something with such a temperamental API is a nightmare. So, I lost my motivation… for about 4 months.

The 4 Month Hiatus

After a while of doing other things, tinkering with some fun ideas (à la pyotr), I had some thoughts about Rela(Git) again. I started by implementing a simple CLI tool for the commit standard, and then I started working on the client again.

What’s with the new look?

During the Hiatus, I came up with a design system that I call Illyrica (ih-lyr-i-cah), after a technologically advanced planet in a certain Sci-Fi series. Quickly, I ported RelaGit to use this new design system, and I’m really happy with the results:

An old version of RelaGit, it looks unpolished.
The first ever design draft of the RelaGit client.
A new version of the client that looks much more polished.
The new design, using the Illyrica design system.

As you can see, big difference.

I’ve been working on it ever since (you can see from my GitHub commit graph), and I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made. I’ve also been working on a new website for the client, which is now available.

What’s really next?

I know I said this last time, but I’m going to try and keep this blog updated more often, as well as posting to dev.to.

But for now, cya!