Source Control Switcher

Automatically activates the right source control provider in Visual Studio for every solution you open.

Why

Visual Studio can have only one source control provider active at a time, and it does not choose one per repository. If you work with Git in one solution and Subversion, TFVC or Perforce in another, you end up changing Tools > Options > Source Control > Plug-in Selection by hand every time.

Source Control Switcher does it for you: when a solution or folder opens, it detects which kind of repository it belongs to and activates the matching provider.

Supported repositories

Works with solutions (.sln, .slnx) and with Open Folder.

Requirements

• Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio 2026: Community, Professional or Enterprise, on x64 or Arm64.
• The source control client(s) you use: Git and TFVC are built into Visual Studio; for Subversion install VisualSVN or AnkhSVN; for Perforce install P4VS.

Still on Visual Studio 2015–2019? Use version 1.1.2.

Installation

In Visual Studio: Extensions > Manage Extensions, search for Source Control Switcher, install and restart. Alternatively, download it from the Visual Studio Marketplace or from the GitHub releases.

That's it: there is nothing to configure for the common cases.

How it works

When a solution or folder opens, the extension looks for repository markers starting from the solution folder and moving up to the drive root. The nearest marker wins; at each folder level the order is:

1. your custom markers (see Custom providers);
2. TFVC bindings in the solution file (solution folder only);
3. .git, then .svn, then $tf.

If nothing is found and Perforce detection is enabled, it asks the Perforce client in the background; if you pick a provider by hand while it runs, your choice is kept. When a repository is found, the provider configured for it is activated; when nothing is found, the current provider is left unchanged.

Every switch is logged in the Source Control Switcher pane of the Output window:

Options

Tools > Options > Source Control Switcher > General

Command

Tools > Detect Source Control Provider runs the detection again for the open solution or folder and activates the matching provider. Use it after changing the provider by hand, or to switch on demand with automatic switching turned off.

Custom providers

For a source control client the extension does not know, add a rule mapping a marker to the client's provider GUID, for example:

.vault=01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef

When .vault (a file or a folder) is found, that provider is activated. The marker must be a single file or folder name; names ending with a dot (such as . or ..) are rejected. To find a provider's GUID, look for SourceControlProviders\{GUID} in the .pkgdef files of the client's extension folder.

Troubleshooting

Set Logging to Verbose and open View > Output, then pick Source Control Switcher in the Show output from list: every detection step and its outcome is logged there. Messages are also written to the Visual Studio activity log when Visual Studio is started with /log.

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue.

Building from source

Open SourceControlSwitcher.slnx in Visual Studio 2022 (17.14+) or 2026 and build; press F5 to debug in the experimental instance. Details in BUILD.txt. Release notes are in the CHANGELOG.

Credits

Based on SccAutoSwitcher by Francesco Pretto. Thanks to everyone who contributed fixes and ideas, including @QianMoXi (start-up with a solution), @joe-kr (Visual Studio 2022 support, AnkhSVN 2019) and @davideciarmiello (TFVC support).

License

MIT — see also the official page on ryadel.com.