Env Branch Switcher

🇬🇧 English | 🇮🇩 Bahasa Indonesia

A VS Code extension that automatically swaps your .env file to match the active git branch.

How it works

• Every .env file in the project is found automatically — at the root or in any subfolder (e.g. src/main/resources/.env). Build/dependency folders such as node_modules, target, build, bin are skipped.
• When you switch from branch A → B (via the VS Code UI or the terminal), all of those .env files are saved to .env-branches/A/, keeping their folder structure.
• If .env-branches/B/ exists, its files are copied back to their original locations.
• If it doesn't exist yet, the .env files are left unchanged and immediately saved as B's snapshot (inherited from A), with an info popup. Edits you make on B are saved when you leave it (the inherited version goes to .backup/).
• .env-branches/ is automatically added to .git/info/exclude so it never gets committed (your project's .gitignore is not modified).

Storage layout inside your project:

my-project/
├── .env                          ← active files, follow the current branch
├── src/main/resources/.env
└── .env-branches/
    ├── main/
    │   ├── .env
    │   └── src/main/resources/.env
    ├── dev/
    ├── feature%2flogin/          ← branch "feature/login"
    └── .backup/                  ← previous snapshots (last 5 per branch)

Running it in your project

1. Build & install the extension

cd /home/exel_tarkus/ExelFiles/experiment/env-branch-switcher
npm install
npm run package
code --install-extension env-branch-switcher-0.0.1.vsix

Then reload VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window).

2. Enable it for your project

The extension is disabled by default. Enable it per project by creating/editing .vscode/settings.json at your project root:

{
  "envBranchSwitcher.enabled": true
}

Or via the Command Palette: Ctrl+Shift+P → Env Branch Switcher: Activation → true.

Or via the UI: Ctrl+, → Workspace tab → search Env Branch Switcher → tick Enabled.

By default every file named .env anywhere in the project is managed. To manage only one specific file, set its path relative to the repo root:

{
  "envBranchSwitcher.enabled": true,
  "envBranchSwitcher.envFile": "backend/.env"
}

3. Save .env for the current branch (recommended)

After enabling, save the .env of the branch you're currently on:

Ctrl+Shift+P → Env Branch Switcher: Save .env for current branch

Skipping this is safe: the current branch's .env is saved automatically the first time you switch branches.

4. Use git as usual

git checkout dev     # main's .env is saved; dev's .env is restored (or a popup if none exists)
# edit .env for dev...
git checkout main    # dev's .env is saved; main's .env is restored

Notifications:

• Pop-up Env updated from the saved snapshot of branch 'dev': .env, src/main/resources/.env (plus a status bar message) → swapped successfully. Only shown when the branch already has a snapshot.
• Info popup No snapshot for branch 'dev' yet — created one from the current env (from 'main'): .env → .env was left unchanged and saved as dev's snapshot.
• Warning popup Branch 'dev' has no saved .env... → no .env file exists in the project, nothing was saved.

Settings

Commands

Notes

• While deactivated, branch switches are not tracked. After activating again, the current .env is treated as belonging to the branch that was active when the extension was last enabled, so it is never saved under the wrong branch.
• Before a snapshot is overwritten with different content, the old one is moved to .env-branches/.backup/<branch>/<timestamp>/ (the 5 most recent are kept).
• Detached HEAD (e.g. git checkout <commit>) is ignored.
• If you switch branches while VS Code is closed, the swap happens when VS Code is reopened.
• Command titles and setting descriptions are shown in Indonesian only when the VS Code display language is Indonesian (requires a language pack). Notification language can be switched with Env Branch Switcher: Language (or "envBranchSwitcher.language": "en" / "id").
• Snapshots live only on your local machine; deleting .env-branches/ deletes all saved .env files.

Development

See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for running locally and publishing to Open VSX.