Good Branch Manager

A simple branch manager focused on the most common workflows when using git. Lives in the Source Control sidebar as a "Branches - GBM" section.

Features

Branch list & sync status

• Branch list showing local and remote branches sorted by most recent commit, with the current branch highlighted.
• Local and remote groups: When showing both scopes, branches are grouped into collapsible Local and Remote sections.
• Sync indicators: Colored SVG icons (light/dark variants) show sync state at a glance — checked-out (synced / ahead/behind counts), local only, synced, upstream gone, or ahead/behind arrows. Icons keep their color when a row is selected (unlike themed codicons).
• Stale & merged hints: Shows last commit age and flags merged or stale branches.
• Rich tooltips: Hover a branch for markdown tooltips with linked commit SHAs, upstream refs, PR details, and metadata (author, default branch, stale/merged status).

Commit history

• Expandable branches: Click a branch to expand it and list recent commits. By default, only commits unique to that branch are shown (not commits already on the default branch); enable showBaseBranchCommits to include the full history.
• Show commits in the editor: Click a commit row to open VS Code's native side-by-side multi-file diff view (the same UI as the built-in Git history). Falls back to an in-extension panel when the Git extension is unavailable.

GitHub pull requests

• PR status icons: When enabled, fetches pull request status from GitHub and shows open, merged, or closed indicators on branch rows.
• Create Pull Request...: Opens an in-editor form to create GitHub PRs using VS Code's built-in GitHub auth. Auto-fills title and body from commits, pushes the branch if needed, and offers to open the PR in a browser or check out the base branch afterward.
• Open Pull Request on GitHub: Available from the context menu when a branch has an associated PR.
• Publish-to-PR prompt: When the checked-out branch is first published to GitHub, asks whether to create a pull request (with "Not Now" and "Don't Ask Again" options).
• GitHub Enterprise: Supports GitHub.com, GitHub Enterprise Cloud (*.github.com), and GitHub Enterprise Server (github.* hosts) for PR creation, status fetching, and opening branches/commits/PRs in the browser.

Branch actions

Right-click any branch for management actions:

• Checkout Branch (remote branches automatically set up tracking)
• Create Branch From This...
• Open Branch on GitHub (or other supported remote host)
• Create Pull Request... (local branches)
• Open Pull Request on GitHub (when a PR exists)
• Rename Branch...
• Merge Into Current Branch
• Pull (Default), Pull --rebase, Pull --no-rebase, Pull --ff-only (current branch with an active upstream only)
• Set/Remove Upstream...
• Delete Branch... (optionally cleans up the remote counterpart)

Refresh

• Prefetch on startup: Branch data loads proactively when the extension activates, with a loading indicator while the first fetch runs.
• Automatic & background refresh: Auto-refreshes on repository changes (commits, checkouts, pushes/fetches) and on a configurable background interval.

Settings

Installation

The extension is available in the VS Code Extension Marketplace and Open VSX Registry.

Alternatively, you can download the latest .vsix package from the GitHub Releases page, then install it from VS Code by opening the Extensions view, clicking the three-dot menu, selecting "Install from VSIX...", and choosing the downloaded .vsix file.