pwrgit

A Git tool window for VS Code, living in the bottom panel. A single integrated view: branch explorer on the left, a colored commit graph on the right, plus a working-tree Changes view and a raw command Console — all driven by direct git calls.

Status: early but functional (v1.0.1). Built for day-to-day local Git work.

Layout

Features

Commit graph (Git Log view)

• Refs explorer grouped into Local / Remote / Tags. Refs whose names contain / are organized into collapsible folders (like a file tree); each leaf shows only its final segment, and double-clicking a folder expands/collapses it. The current branch is marked.
• Incoming/outgoing badges per branch — ↓N behind, ↑N ahead (blue/green). Unpushed branches show outgoing counts relative to all remotes.
• Commit graph with lane assignment and colored bezier edges (merges converge, branches fork). Each commit shows its ref badges — local branches in blue, remotes in purple, tags in grey — alongside author and relative date.
• Multi-select & squash: Shift- or Ctrl/⌘-click to select multiple commits, then right-click the selection to squash them into a single commit.
• Filtering: double-click a branch or tag to scope the log to it (double-clicking a folder just collapses/expands it); free-text search by commit message, author, or hash; a Clear button resets both. Filters survive auto-refresh.
• Commit limit: set how many commits to load via the input in the Commits header; a Load more row appears when older history remains.

Diffs

• Click a commit → its changed files appear in the right pane.
• Click a file → native VS Code diff (commit vs. its first parent) via a pwrgit-diff: content provider.

Changes view (working tree)

• Status grouped into Changes / Unversioned Files with checkboxes.
• Commit the checked files; split button offers Commit / Commit and Push.
• Amend checkbox prefills the previous commit message (and restores your draft on uncheck); the message box is never cleared automatically.
• Rollback the checked files ("Rollback changes to N files"), or a single file via its context menu.
• Stash the checked files (uses the commit message as the stash name if present). A Stashes tab lists saved stashes with Apply / Pop / Drop.
• Click a file → working-tree diff against HEAD.
• A change-count badge shows on the Changes icon.

Context menu actions

• Branch: Checkout · New Branch · Fetch · Pull · Update (fast-forward a non-current branch to its upstream) · Push · Force Push (--force-with-lease) · Merge into current · Rebase current onto · Rename · Delete.
• Commit: Checkout (detached) · New Branch from here · Create Tag Here · Cherry-pick · Revert · Reset soft/mixed/hard · Copy Revision Number · Copy Message.
• Tag: Checkout · New Branch from tag · Push Tag · Delete Tag.
• A Merge / Rebase toggle in the Branches header controls whether Pull uses git pull or git pull --rebase (persisted).
• Destructive actions (delete, hard reset, force push, rollback) require confirmation.

Console

• Every UI-triggered git command is logged with its stdout/stderr, like a terminal — handy for understanding and debugging what ran. Failures turn red and raise an error dot on the Console icon.

Live updates

• Filesystem watchers on the git directory (HEAD, refs, index, …) and the working tree keep the panel in sync with changes made from the terminal or elsewhere, debounced to coalesce bursts. A manual Refresh action (rail bottom) is always available.

Getting started (development)

Requirements: Node 18+ and VS Code 1.90+.

npm install
# npm 9+ blocks native install scripts; approve esbuild's if prompted:
npm install-scripts approve esbuild   # then: npm install-scripts run
npm run build

Then press F5 in VS Code (uses .vscode/launch.json) to open an Extension Development Host. Open any Git repository, and the pwrgit tab appears in the bottom panel next to Terminal/Problems.

For iterative work: run the npm: watch task, press F5 once, and reload the Ext Host with Ctrl+R after edits.

Testing

npm test        # Node's built-in test runner over test/**/*.test.ts

Tests cover the pure logic — commit-graph lane assignment (src/graph.ts) and branch-name sanitising (src/branch.ts). They run the .ts sources directly, so they need a Node build with native TypeScript support (Node ≥ 22.18 or ≥ 23.6).

Packaging

npm run package         # builds (production) and writes pwrgit-<version>.vsix

Install the .vsix via Extensions: Install from VSIX… in VS Code. To publish to the Marketplace, set your real publisher/repository in package.json, then npm run publish (requires a Personal Access Token; the keytar and @vscode/vsce-sign install scripts are only needed for publishing/signing).

Architecture

Why raw git? The commit graph needs parent topology (%P) and precise --format control the built-in Git extension API doesn't expose.

Roadmap

See TODO.md for the planned work and known limitations.

License

MIT