BlameTrail
Show git blame information (revision, date, author) inline, right next to the line numbers of the file you're editing — driven entirely from the editor's line-number context menu.
Screenshots
Right-click a line number to annotate:
Inline revision, date, and author for every line:
Toggle exactly what's shown, right from the menu:
How to use
- Right-click any line number in the editor gutter.
- Choose "Annotate with git blame".
- If the file isn't tracked in a git repository, nothing happens.
- Otherwise, blame info appears before each line: by default, commit date and the author's first name.
- While annotation is active, right-click a line number or right-click the blame text/code itself (regular editor context menu) to get:
- Close annotation — hides the annotation.
- Annotation view (submenu) — checkboxes for what to display.
- Copy Revision Number — copies the full commit hash of that line to the clipboard.
- Hover over the annotation text to see the full commit hash, author, date, and commit message.
Commands
| Command |
Menu location |
| Annotate with git blame |
Editor line-number context menu (shown when annotation is off) |
| Close annotation |
Editor line-number context menu (shown when annotation is on) |
| Copy Revision Number |
Editor line-number context menu (shown when annotation is on) |
| Annotation view ▸ Revision |
Submenu checkbox |
| Annotation view ▸ Date |
Submenu checkbox |
| Annotation view ▸ Author |
Submenu checkbox |
| Annotation view ▸ Ignore whitespaces |
Submenu checkbox |
The annotation on/off state is tracked separately per file: annotating one file has no effect on any other open file, and each file remembers its own on/off state as you switch between tabs.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
blameTrail.showRevision |
false |
Show the short commit hash. |
blameTrail.showDate |
true |
Show the commit date. |
blameTrail.dateFormat |
"YYYY-MM-DD" |
One of YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD, MM/DD/YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY. All four are the same length, so alignment isn't affected either way. The hover tooltip uses this same format. |
blameTrail.showAuthor |
true |
Show the commit author. |
blameTrail.ignoreWhitespace |
true |
Ignore whitespace-only changes when blaming (git blame -w). |
blameTrail.authorFormat |
"First Name" |
One of Initials, First Name, Last Name, E-mail. If the chosen format can't be derived from the commit author's name, falls back to their e-mail — but only if it actually looks like a valid e-mail address (has an @ and a domain). If a commit's recorded author e-mail is something like a stray placeholder value (e.g. "password"), it's treated as invalid and the author's name is shown instead, both in the inline annotation and the hover tooltip. |
These settings can be changed either from the Settings UI/settings.json, or directly from the Annotation view submenu checkboxes — both stay in sync.
Requirements
git must be available on the PATH.- VS Code
^1.90.0 or newer (for the editor/lineNumber/context menu).
Development
npm install
npm run compile # or: npm run watch
Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.
See PUBLISHING.md for how to package (npm run package) and publish to the Marketplace. See CHANGELOG.md for release notes.
Known limitations
- Editing an annotated file (including running a formatter) clears its annotation immediately and re-runs
git blame about half a second after you stop typing/the edit settles. Uncommitted lines show up as "Not Committed Yet".
- Settings (what to show, ignore-whitespace, author format) are global, not per file — they apply the same way to every currently-annotated file.
- Large files: blame runs via
git blame --line-porcelain, which is simple and reliable but not specifically optimized for very large files.
