My Branch

By Nordic Cloud Labs

A sidebar that answers one question instantly: what did I actually change on this branch?

Not "everything git thinks is dirty" — the Source Control view mixes your branch's work with anything else touching the tree. My Branch diffs against the commit where you branched off, so committed, staged, unstaged, and untracked changes all show up in one focused list, and nothing else does.

Screenshots

Sidebar in default folder-tree Folder tree view

Compare Branch quick pick or search Branch picker

Right-click context menu open on a fil

Why My Branch

Branch-scoped, not workspace-scoped — only files that differ from your merge-base, so a big repo with unrelated in-progress work elsewhere doesn't drown out your own change set
One list, every change type — committed, staged, unstaged, and untracked together, instead of stitching together Source Control + Explorer + git status
Built for review, not just diffing — active-file highlighting, drag-to-attach, and copy actions are aimed at the moment before you open a PR, when you're re-reading everything you touched

Privacy & trust

100% local. Every operation shells out to your own git binary (execFile, no bundled git library)
No network calls, ever. The extension never phones home; it only reads the repository already open in your workspace.
Open source. MIT-licensed, source at github.com/FredrikBurlin/my-branch — read exactly what it does before you trust it with your repo.

Features

Branch-scoped file list — shows only files that differ from where your branch diverged, not all modified files in the repo
All change types included — committed, staged, unstaged, and untracked files in one view
Pick your compare branch — pick any local/remote branch from a picklist (sorted by recent activity) or type one in; the view header always shows what you're comparing against
Folder tree view by default — toggle between a folder tree and a flat file list, with Collapse All for the tree
Native file icons — uses your active icon theme (Material Icons, VSCode Icons, etc.)
Status badges — each file is labeled M (modified), A (added), D (deleted), R (renamed), U (untracked), C (merge conflict)
Diff stats — optional +12 -4 line-count badges per file (off by default; toggle from the view title bar)
Hide deleted files — toggle deleted files on or off when you don't need them
Click to open — click any file to open it directly; right-click → Open Diff to see it against your merge-base instead
Active file highlighting — automatically reveals and selects the file you're editing, just like the Explorer — without hijacking your sidebar if you're working somewhere else
Drag out — drag a file from the list onto the editor area to open it, or onto a chat panel to attach it
Multi-select — select several files and copy paths/names, open, or stage all of them at once
Copy as Markdown list — grabs the whole changed-file list as a paste-ready bullet list ( - \path` `) for PR descriptions
Right-click context menu — Open Diff, Open to the Side, Stage, Reveal in Explorer, Reveal in Finder, Copy Path, Copy Relative Path, Copy File Name, Rename, Delete
Live updates — refreshes automatically when you stage, commit, save, or switch branches
Smart base detection — auto-detects your upstream branch; falls back to main, then master, then develop

How It Works

My Branch finds the merge base between your current branch and its upstream (the commit where the branch diverged), then combines:

git diff <merge-base>..HEAD — committed changes on your branch
git diff --cached — staged changes
git diff — unstaged changes
git ls-files --others — untracked files

Files that were added and then deleted on the branch (net zero) are excluded automatically.

Usage

Open any git repository in VS Code. The My Branch tab appears in the activity bar.

Action	How
Pick the branch to compare against	Branch icon in the view title bar — choose from the list or type a branch name
Toggle flat / tree view	Buttons in the view title bar (tree is the default)
Collapse all folders	Collapse All icon in the view title bar (tree view only)
Show / hide deleted files	Eye icon in the view title bar
Show / hide diff stats	Diff icon in the view title bar (off by default)
Copy the whole list as a Markdown list	"..." menu in the view title bar → Copy as Markdown List
Refresh manually	Refresh icon in the view title bar
Open a file	Click it
Open Diff (vs. your merge-base)	Right-click → Open Diff
Open to the Side	Right-click → Open to the Side (opens every selected file if multiple are selected)
Stage a file	Right-click → Stage (works on multiple selected files at once)
Reveal in Explorer	Right-click → Reveal in Explorer View
Copy file path / name	Right-click → Copy Path / Copy Relative Path / Copy File Name (joins all selected files, one per line, if multiple are selected)
Attach a file elsewhere	Drag it onto the editor area or a chat panel
Rename / delete a file	Right-click → Rename... / Delete (delete asks for confirmation and moves the file to the trash)

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
`myBranch.upstream`	`""`	Override the upstream branch used for merge-base calculation (e.g. `origin/develop`). Leave empty for auto-detection. Overridden by the branch picked via the view title bar, which is remembered per workspace.

Example — if your team branches off develop instead of main:

"myBranch.upstream": "origin/develop"

Requirements

VS Code 1.93.0 or higher
Git installed and available on your PATH

Development

git clone https://github.com/FredrikBurlin/my-branch
cd my-branch
npm install
npm run compile
# Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host

No automated test suite exists yet — verification is manual, via the Extension Development Host.

Contributing / Feedback

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

License

MIT