GitLens supercharges the Git capabilities built into Visual Studio Code. It helps you to visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via powerful comparison commands, and so much more.

GitLens is an open-source extension for Visual Studio Code created by Eric Amodio.

GitLens simply helps you better understand code. Quickly glimpse into whom, why, and when a line or code block was changed. Jump back through history to gain further insights as to how and why the code evolved. Effortlessly explore the history and evolution of a codebase. Dive right in and see how GitLens can help!

While GitLens is powerful and feature rich, it is also highly customizable to meet your specific needs — find code lens intrusive or the current line blame annotation distracting — no problem, it is quick and easy to turn them off or change how they behave via the built-in GitLens Settings editor, an interactive editor covering many of GitLens' powerful settings. While for more advanced customizations, refer to the GitLens docs and edit your User Settings.

Configure GitLens

Don't miss how easy it is to configure GitLens!

What's New in GitLens 9.8

See the release notes for the full set of changes

  • 9.8.5 JULY  2019
  • IMPROVEDCleans up the layout and formatting of many quick pick menus
  • FIXEDFixes issue where Search Commits from repositories in the Repositories view would incorrectly show a repository picker
  • 9.8.4 JULY  2019
  • NEWAdds Switch to Two-dot Comparison and Switch to Three-dot Comparison commands to specify whether to use the symmetric difference (three-dot) notation or the range (two-dot) notation for the comparison — applies to all comparisons in the views
  • IMPROVEDChanges the Switch to Working Tree Comparison and Switch to Branch Comparison commands to only affect the current comparison, rather than changing the gitlens.views.repositories.showBranchComparison setting
  • 9.8.3 JULY  2019
  • NEWAdds working tree comparison support to the Compare Current Branch with <branch, tag, or ref> node within each repository in the Repositories view

    Changes gitlens.views.repositories.showBranchComparison to also specify the type of comparison — either with the current branch or the working tree

    Adds a Switch to Working Tree Comparison command or Switch to Branch Comparison command to the Compare Current Branch with <branch, tag, or ref> node

  • NEWAdds the Open Revision command as an alt-click of the Open File command on files in the views
  • NEWAdds the Open File command as an alt-click of the Open Revision command on files in the views
  • IMPROVEDChanges fetch, pull, and push commands to be executed in parallel, rather than sequentially
  • IMPROVEDChanges Search Commits (gitlens.showCommitSearch) command to prompt for a repository, if there is more than one
  • IMPROVEDRemoves gitlens.settings.mode setting as the interactive settings editor (via the GitLens: Open Settings command) will always show all settings now
  • FIXEDFixes #776 — File history sidebar having "Open file" instead of "Open revision"
  • FIXEDFixes #692 — Can't open remote on bitbucket — thanks to PR #767 by grozan (@grozan)
  • FIXEDFixes a parsing issue with certain renamed files
  • FIXEDFixes some issues with emoji rendering
  • 9.8.2 JUNE  2019
  • NEWAdds a changes indicator (+x -x) to the File History view to quickly show the number of added and/or deleted lines
  • IMPROVEDPreserve Show More expansions during file system or repository changes — avoids losing view expansion and selection
  • IMPROVEDChanges to match authors exactly in the Contributors view
  • FIXEDFixes #734 — Not working with VS Code Remote - SSH extension (fixes the broken hover image)
  • FIXEDFixes #751 — Git Command failed
  • FIXEDFixes #756 — Merge commit shows only the changes from the last commit on those files
  • FIXEDFixes issue with the Open Changes with Previous Revision command when run from the diff editor and the file has unstaged changes
  • FIXEDFixes an issue where view expansion and selection was getting lost with search and compare nodes
  • 9.8.1 MAY  2019
  • FIXEDFixes the Show More command in the File History and Line History views
  • FIXEDFixes a caching issue with file histories
  • FIXEDFixes a regression where the Copy Remote Url to Clipboard command fails to include the selected line range
  • 9.8 MAY  2019
  • NEWAdds a new Compare Current Branch with <branch, tag, or ref> node to each repository in the Repositories view — closes #293

    Optionally shows a comparison of the current branch to a user-selected reference

  • NEWAdds a new experimental Incoming Activity node to each repository in the Repositories view (enabled via "gitlens.insiders": true) — closes #735

    Lists the recent incoming activity (merges and pulls) to your local repository. Provides the command, branch (if available), and date of each activity

  • NEWAdds a Show a comparison of the current branch to a user-selected reference (gitlens.views.repositories.showBranchComparison) setting to specify whether to show a comparison of the current branch to a user-selected reference in the Repositories view
  • NEWAdds a gitlens.advanced.useSymmetricDifferenceNotation setting to specify whether to use the symmetric difference (three-dot) notation or the range (two-dot) notation for comparisons — closes #330
  • NEWAdds a Copy Remote Url to Clipboard command to commit quick pick menus
  • IMPROVEDChanges Pull and Pull Repositories commands to just fetch the repository if the current branch has no tracking branch
  • FIXEDFixes #734 — Not working with VS Code Remote - SSH extension
  • FIXEDFixes #739 — Breadcrumbs don't work on file revisions
  • FIXEDFixes #750 — Open file on GitHub does not include directory path
  • FIXEDFixes an issue with the Open Revision command in the quick pick menus not working properly