Merge Studio

The JetBrains-style three-pane merge & diff experience, embedded in VS Code and Cursor.

Merge Studio brings the IntelliJ / WebStorm / PyCharm merge-conflict workflow to VS Code and Cursor: a faithful three-pane merge editor with curved gutter ribbons, a conflicts dashboard that drives the whole session, full undo history, and a precise side-by-side diff. Nothing external required — and if you already run a JetBrains IDE, Merge Studio can hand the merge straight to it.

Three-pane merge editor

Left is yours, the center is the result you commit, right is theirs — joined by color ribbons and accept arrows, just like the JetBrains merge dialog. Edit the result freely; alignment re-flows live as you type.

• Per-side resolution — apply (≫ / ≪), append (Ctrl-click), or ignore (✕) each change independently
• Apply all non-conflicting changes (left / right / all), plus a magic-wand for identical edits
• Undo / redo with a named action history — ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z, toolbar buttons, and a history dropdown
• Curved ribbons connect changes across panes, with crisp frames around true conflicts
• Two-intensity highlighting that keeps syntax colors readable
• Change navigation (F7 / ⇧F7), synchronized scrolling, whitespace modes, large-file fallback

Conflicts dashboard

The moment a merge, rebase, cherry-pick, or revert produces conflicts, the Conflicts page opens automatically — driven by direct .git operation-state watchers, not the slower git-extension poll.

• Every conflicted file with Accept Yours · Accept Theirs · Merge… actions
• Resolved files stay in the list — green, check-marked, and labeled with how they were settled
• Hold-to-undo on any resolved file: hold 1.5s and git checkout -m restores the original conflict
• Cancel Merge aborts the operation and restores the pre-merge state (merge, rebase, cherry-pick, revert)
• Live progress bar, branch context (yours ⟵ theirs), and a ⚠ status-bar button while conflicts remain

Side-by-side diff

• Compare any two files, or a single file against its git HEAD — Explorer right-click or the Merge Studio: Compare command
• Live re-diff as you edit the right pane, with intra-line highlights on exactly what changed
• The same ribbons, colors, and navigation as the merge editor

Optional: hand off to a real JetBrains IDE

Have WebStorm, PyCharm, IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, GoLand, CLion, Rider, RubyMine, or DataGrip installed? Set jbMerge.conflictResolver: "jetbrains" (or jbMerge.diffTool: "jetbrains") and Merge Studio shells out to the real IDE window, auto-detecting it from your PATH or /Applications. Entirely optional — everything above works without it.

Install

VS Code — search Merge Studio in the Extensions view, or:

code --install-extension gitstudio.merge-studio

Cursor / VSCodium / Windsurf / Gitpod — via the Open VSX Registry:

cursor --install-extension gitstudio.merge-studio

Sideload a .vsix — download the latest from GitHub Releases:

code --install-extension merge-studio-0.3.0.vsix

Settings

Requirements

VS Code 1.74+ (or Cursor), git on your PATH, and the built-in Git extension enabled. Merge Studio operates on a repository on disk, so it needs a trusted, non-virtual (local) workspace.

Development

npm install              # install dependencies
npm run watch            # incremental build (extension + webview)
npm test                 # pure-logic unit tests
npm run check-types      # TypeScript type-check
npx @vscode/vsce package # build the .vsix

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

Support

Merge Studio is free, MIT-licensed, and built nights & weekends. If it makes your merges painless:

• ❤️ Sponsor on GitHub — recurring support
• ☕ Buy me a coffee — a one-off tip

License

MIT — part of the GitStudio family.

_{JetBrains, IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, PyCharm, PhpStorm, GoLand, CLion, Rider, RubyMine, and DataGrip are trademarks of JetBrains s.r.o. Merge Studio is an independent project and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, JetBrains.}