Git Line Blame

Visual Studio Code extension that displays inline information in the text editor about the latest commit that edited the currently selected line.

Features

This extension is small on purpose and doesn't come with any settings. It will automatically activate when you open a workspace that contains a git repository. When you select a line in the text editor, the commit summary, author, and time elapsed since that commit edited that line will appear next to the line number in a discrete and unobtrusive color.

Usage

Simply install the latest version from the Visual Studio Marketplace. Releases are made from GitHub Actions.

Develop

First, if you're new to VS Code extension development, skim through CONTRIBUTING.md first.

Set up local development environment

# Install package in the working directory.
npm install

# (Windows & MacOS) Run unit tests.
npm test

# (Linux) Prepend `npm test` with `xvfb-run -a` when running on Linux.
xvfb-run -a npm test

Release a new version

1. Update the version in package.json according to semver (e.g. npm version minor for a new feature).
2. Update the CHANGELOG.md with the new version and changes.
3. git push --tags
4. Submit a new release by gh release create v$(npm pkg get version | xargs) and fill in the details.

FAQ

Why not just use GitLens instead?

GitLens is an excellent extension but I found it overly complicated for my needs, with many features I didn't need. It's also frustrating that the extension keeps pushing for its paid version. In contrast, this extension will always be free and open source software (see license), and will never do more than just provide the line blame information.

What's that extension icon?

Created by prompting Stable Diffusion over in stable-diffusion with python main.py --prompt "git line blame". 🫢