A minimalist, SourceTree-style git history view that lives in a single VS Code tab.
Built for setups where you can't run a standalone git GUI but can use VS Code.
Open it from the Command Palette → “Open Git Overview”.
What it shows
One tab, three panes:
Top — commit history. Every commit across all branches, with a colored
branch graph, ref badges (branch / remote / tag / HEAD), the subject, author,
and relative date. Click a commit, then use ↑ / ↓ (and Home / End) to walk the history.
Bottom-left — changed files + commit details. Two stacked rows:
Top: the files a commit changed, with add / modify / delete / rename markers.
Click a file, then use ↑ / ↓ (and Home / End) to walk through the diffs.
Bottom: the selected commit's full hash, author, date, and message.
Bottom-right — the diff. Click a file to see its changed lines as a unified diff.
Every divider is draggable — resize the history, the file list vs. commit details, and
the left column vs. the diff.
How branches are shown
Git doesn’t record which branch a commit was “made on” — a commit only knows its parents,
and branches are just movable labels. So, like every git GUI, Git Overview shows branch
context two ways:
Ref badges — the actual branch, remote, and tag names that currently point at a
commit (the checked-out branch is highlighted).
The graph — colored lanes that let you visually trace which line of development a
commit belongs to, including forks and merges.
Settings
Setting
Default
Description
gitOverview.commitBatchSize
200
Commits loaded per page; Load more fetches another batch.
gitOverview.includeRemoteBranches
true
Include remote-tracking branches (origin/*). Off = local branches and tags only.
Notes & scope (MVP)
Read-only. It’s a history viewer — it doesn’t stage, commit, or push.
Working-copy / uncommitted changes are not shown (committed history only).
Uses the first git repository found in the workspace.
