Diff Mark

Compare your working tree against any git branch with gutter highlights, Explorer badges, and a dedicated side panel — without interfering with VS Code's built-in uncommitted-changes indicators.

Features

Branch selection

Open the Diff Mark panel in the Activity Bar (or run Diff Mark: Select Branch to Compare from the Command Palette) to pick any local or remote branch. The comparison stays active across all open files until you stop it.

Gutter highlights

Changed lines are marked in the editor gutter with colored left-border indicators:

Uncommitted HEAD changes always take visual priority — branch-diff highlights are suppressed on any line already highlighted by VS Code's built-in diff.

Hover over any highlighted line for a clickable Show diff link, or run Diff Mark: Show Diff for Current File from the Command Palette.

Side panel

The Diff Mark Activity Bar view lists every changed file, grouped by status:

• Modified — files changed between the branch and working tree
• Added — files new in the working tree (not present on the branch)
• Deleted — files present on the branch but removed in the working tree

Click any file to open a side-by-side diff. The panel toolbar has three buttons: select branch, refresh, and stop.

Explorer decorations

Files in the Explorer are decorated with distinct badges and colors that differ from VS Code's built-in M/A/D markers:

Commands

Settings

Theme color overrides

All four Explorer decoration colors can be customized in your settings.json:

"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
  "diffMark.modifiedForeground": "#4FC1FF",
  "diffMark.addedForeground": "#C586C0",
  "diffMark.deletedForeground": "#F48771",
  "diffMark.renamedForeground": "#73C991"
}

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85 or later
• Git must be installed and available on PATH
• The workspace must be a git repository

Known limitations

• Only the first workspace folder is used in multi-root workspaces.
• Binary files are listed in the panel but do not open a meaningful diff view.