Git Diff Sidebar

VSCode extension that shows files changed from a base branch in the Source Control sidebar.

Features

Shows committed changes (diff from base branch, default: main)
Shows uncommitted changes (staged, unstaged, untracked)
Click file to open, click diff icon to view diff
Auto-refreshes on file changes
Stacked-diff integration for branch selection: GitHub stacks (gh stack) and git-spice (gs)

Install

From Open VSX Registry or install .vsix manually:

Download from Releases
In VSCode: Extensions > ... > Install from VSIX

Usage

Open a git repo in VSCode
Find "Changes from Base" in Source Control sidebar
Use toolbar icons to refresh or change base branch

Stacked diffs

When the current branch belongs to a stack, the base branch picker lists the branches below it (marked 🥞) before the recent branches, so you can diff against the layer you are actually stacked on.

Both stacking tools are supported and detected automatically:

GitHub stacks — gh stack view --json
git-spice — gs ls --json

A repository can use both. Detection is per branch: whichever tool tracks the current branch is used, and if both do, GitHub stacks win — they are what the pull requests on GitHub are based on. Set gitDiffSidebar.stackProvider to force one tool or to turn detection off.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`gitDiffSidebar.gitSpiceExecutable`	`gs`	Path to git-spice executable
`gitDiffSidebar.ghExecutable`	`gh`	Path to GitHub CLI executable
`gitDiffSidebar.stackProvider`	`auto`	`auto`, `github`, `git-spice` or `none`

Example (in settings.json):

{
  "gitDiffSidebar.gitSpiceExecutable": "gs",
  "gitDiffSidebar.ghExecutable": "gh",
  "gitDiffSidebar.stackProvider": "auto"
}

Development

npm install
npm run compile
npm run package  # creates .vsix

Press F5 in VSCode to launch extension in debug mode.

License

MIT

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