diff --git a/pelican_deploy/gittool.py b/pelican_deploy/gittool.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6af8101
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pelican_deploy/gittool.py
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import os
+import shlex
+from collections import namedtuple
+from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
+
+CmdResult = namedtuple("CmdResult", "status stdout stderr")
+
+class Repo:
+    def __init__(self, repo_dir, git_cmd="git", default_timeout=None):
+        self.repo_dir = repo_dir
+        self.git_cmd = git_cmd
+        self.default_timeout = default_timeout
+
+    def __getattr__(self, name):
+        name = name.replace("_", "-")
+        def cmdcaller(*args, cmd=None, **kwargs):
+            cmdargs = shlex.split(cmd) if cmd else args
+            return self.cmd(*((self.git_cmd, name) + tuple(cmdargs)), **kwargs)
+        return cmdcaller
+
+    def cmd(self, *args, timeout=None, env=None):
+        timeout = timeout if timeout else default_timeout
+        proc = self.popen_cmd(*args, env=env)
+        outs, errs = proc.communicate(timeout=timeout)
+        status = proc.wait()
+        return CmdResult(status, outs, errs)
+
+    def popen_cmd(self, *args, env=None):
+        return Popen(args, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, cwd=self.repo_dir, env=env)
+
+    def is_bare(self):
+        result = self.rev_parse("--is-bare-repository")
+        return result.stdout.startswith(b"true")
+
+    def is_repo(self):
+        return self.rev_parse("--git-dir").status == 0
+