I believe you can use JGit in your Java application.
The main page includes:
JGit has very few dependencies, making it suitable for embedding in any Java application, whether or not the application is taking advantage of other Eclipse or OSGi technologies.
The download page mentions that:
JGit can be consumed in a Maven build.
Multiple artifacts are available, depending on the application's requirements:
See a full pom.xl in jgit-cookbook/blob/master/pom.xml:
Extract:
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>jgit-repository</id>
<url>http://download.eclipse.org/jgit/maven</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<!-- Core Library -->
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.jgit</groupId>
<artifactId>org.eclipse.jgit</artifactId>
<version>3.4.1.201406201815-r</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
The exact list of git commands currently supported is not always up-to-date (as the bug 317482 illustrates):
Update September 2013 - July 2014: all the commands below are now available.