Git Branches Panel

Git Branches Panel is a Visual Studio Code extension that shows local and remote Git branches, stashes, worktrees, hooks, tags, and remotes in a dedicated tree view with folder grouping, search, filtering, compare/history workflows, remote-host integration, sync status, current-branch context, quick actions, and multi-repository support.

This extension lives in the vscode-extensions repository under extensions/git-branches-panel/.

Overview

The panel keeps the active branch visible at the top, groups slash-separated branch names into folders, and separates Local, Remote, Stash, Worktree, Hooks, and Tags into their own sections so common Git navigation feels fast and tidy. In multi-repository workspaces, the extension can group those sections under repository containers or focus on one active repository at a time. The Local section opens first, while Remote, Stash, Worktree, Hooks, and Tags stay collapsed until you expand them.

Features

• 🌿 Folder grouping — branches like feature/auth or feature/payments/stripe are nested into folders automatically
• 🗂️ Multi-repository aware — automatically switches between a flat single-repo tree and repository containers when multiple Git repositories are open in the workspace
• 🎯 Active repository focus — keep one repository active for toolbar actions and current-branch context, or switch directly to the repository that owns the active editor
• 🏢 Repository-row quick actions — when repositories are grouped, each repository row now exposes repo-specific inline actions such as New Branch, Sync / Publish Current Branch, Fetch All (Prune), and a repo-scoped More Actions picker
• 🧭 Grouped multi-repo toolbar actions — when repository containers are visible, the top toolbar switches from active-repository-only branch/fetch shortcuts to workspace-wide actions like syncing, pulling, and fetching across all shown repositories, and More Actions there is now all-repositories only
• 🔎 Find Ref... — search branches, tags, stashes, worktrees, and optionally hooks with query prefixes like remote: or state:stale
• 🎚️ Tree filtering — filter the visible tree by query text, pinned-only mode, or a Needs Attention preset without losing the surrounding repository or folder context
• 🕘 Ref history quick picks — browse branch and tag commits with actions to open changed files, inspect commit details, or copy commit SHAs
• 🆚 Richer compare workflows — compare a branch with its upstream, compare any two refs, or open changed files for the latest commit on a selected ref
• 🌐 Remote-host actions — open a branch on its remote, open a browser compare page, create a pull request, or copy hosted branch/compare URLs without leaving VS Code
• 🧭 Local and remote sections — local branches are shown first, with remote branches listed in a separate group below them
• 🔗 Remotes section — configured remotes appear in their own section with fetch, rename, URL, homepage, and remove actions that focus on remote configuration rather than remote-tracking branches
• 🧩 Per-section visibility — show or hide Local, Remote, Remotes, Stash, Worktree, Hooks, and Tags independently from settings; the dedicated Remotes section now starts hidden by default
• 🧺 Stash section — stashes are shown between remote branches and tags so parked work stays close at hand
• 🪵 Worktree section — worktrees are shown under stashes so additional checkouts are easy to find and maintain, including prune, lock, unlock, ref-copy, and terminal actions
• 🪝 Hooks section — appears only when the repository has configured Git hooks, showing local .git/hooks scripts and any shared hooks from core.hooksPath with active/disabled state
• 🏷️ Release-friendly tag workflows — create lightweight, annotated, or signed annotated tags; optionally push the new tag immediately; push a single tag later; delete a remote tag; compare a tag with the current branch; inspect tag metadata; and copy the peeled target SHA
• 📁 Folders first — folders are listed before branch leaves inside each section
• ⚡ Faster first paint — the tree loads Local branches first so the view opens quickly in larger repositories
• 📦 Lazy-loaded sections — Remote, Stash, Worktree, and Tags are loaded only when you expand them
• 🧭 Focused default expansion — Local starts expanded while other sections and nested folders start collapsed
• ✅ Current branch first — highlighted with a ● prefix and a green icon
• 🪄 Optional current branch banner — keep or hide the top Current branch: ... summary from settings, now off by default for a quieter tree
• 🧭 Customizable branch right-click menu — reorder or hide the primary branch actions from settings while More Branch Actions... always stays available as the full fallback picker and now includes the advanced rebase/reset/squash/force-push flows directly
• 🎛️ Configurable toolbar quick actions — reorder or hide per-mode toolbar buttons with toolbar.singleRepository.quickActions and toolbar.multiRepository.quickActions, while the older toolbar.show* booleans remain as compatibility fallbacks
• 🧺 Changes-view stash buttons — surface stash shortcuts in the built-in Changes view title bar, with Stash all changes silently enabled there by default
• 🖱️ Section hover quick actions — hover Local, Remote, Stash, Worktree, and Tags groups to reveal section-specific inline buttons for high-frequency actions
• 🧹 Quiet branch-name sanitization — new branch names are cleaned up automatically to stay Git-valid, with optional lowercase kebab-case normalization that also strips extra special characters while preserving - and /
• 🕐 Last commit time — shown as a relative description when sync counts are not using that space, and always available in the tooltip
• 🔄 Color-coded sync icons and counts — tracked local branches use blue/green sync icons plus right-side counts like ↓2, ↑1, or ↓2 ↑1 so divergence stays readable without crowding the branch label
• ☁️ Inline sync button — every branch gets a small sync button, including branches that are not currently checked out
• 🌀 Inline sync animation — branch sync and publish actions swap to a spinning inline indicator while Git is working
• 🏷️ Inline action buttons — checkout, create new branch from selected and checkout, pin/unpin, and delete appear inline alongside sync/publish for quick access
• 🚀 Non-current branch sync — sync a branch with its upstream without checking it out first
• ☁️ Publish actions — publish local branches without an upstream, including the current branch and descendant folder actions
• 🧭 Classified remote-branch delete recovery — remote deletion failures now distinguish local hook blocks, stale tracking refs, and remote-side rejections instead of offering a generic retry
• 🧹 Stale remote-tracking cleanup — branches whose remote was removed are marked as stale, skip destructive remote-delete actions, and can be cleaned up locally in one click
• ⚠️ Missing upstream detection — local branches whose tracked upstream no longer exists are shown with a warning color and the publish action instead of sync
• 📌 Pin starred items to the top — pin local or remote branches, stashes, and worktrees so they stay easy to reach
• 🪵 Create worktrees from refs — create a linked worktree directly from a branch or a detached worktree from a tag without checking that ref out first
• 🍒 Cherry-pick into current — cherry-pick a selected branch into the checked out branch from the context menu
• 🧪 Advanced branch operations — safely rebase the current branch onto a selected ref, rebase a non-current local branch through a temporary worktree, squash-merge into the current branch, reset the current branch to a selected ref, and force-push with lease after explicit confirmation
• 🛡️ Protected branch safeguards — block delete actions for configured branch names such as main, master, and develop
• 🧭 Branch prefix picker — optionally prefill new branch names from common folders like feature/, bugfix/, or hotfix/
• 🆚 Compare with current branch — compare a local or remote branch against the currently checked out branch from the context menu
• 📦 Stash actions — apply, pop, drop, or pop the latest stash from the Stash section context menu, plus stash all or staged changes from the Branches toolbar or built-in Changes view title bar
• 🪝 Hook actions — enable/disable and edit configured Git hook scripts directly from the Hooks section hover buttons or context menu
• 🏷️ Tag hover quick actions — checkout and delete a tag directly from the tag row hover buttons
• 📦 Stash hover quick actions — pop, apply, or drop a stash directly from the stash row hover buttons
• 🪝 Hook hover quick actions — enable/disable a hook and open it in the editor directly from the hook row
• 🪟 Worktree actions — open, rename, reveal, copy, or remove linked worktrees from the context menu, with open/open-in-new-window buttons now available directly on worktree item hover
• ⚡ Double-click checkout — double-click a branch to switch instantly
• 🔀 Merge into current — merge a selected branch into the current branch from the context menu
• 🧰 Context menu actions — checkout, sync, publish, create tags, rename, merge into current, cherry-pick, compare with current, copy branch name, delete/cleanup, and open a codicon-based branch actions picker, all with settings-driven branch-menu ordering and visibility
• 🧷 Section context menu parity — the new Local, Stash, Worktree, Hooks, and Tags section hover actions are also available from those section context menus where that improves discoverability
• ➕ Toolbar quick actions — create a new branch, sync or publish the current branch, fetch all remotes, fetch all with prune, refresh, open advanced actions, and open extension settings from the panel title bar, with the stash shortcut moved out of the Branches toolbar by default
• 🔄 Targeted auto-refresh — updates loaded sections when .git/HEAD, .git/FETCH_HEAD, .git/config, .git/packed-refs, .git/refs/heads/, .git/refs/remotes/, .git/refs/tags/, .git/refs/stash, .git/logs/refs/stash, .git/hooks/, .git/worktrees/, workspace folders, or settings change

Commands

Changes view stash placement

• The built-in Changes view stash buttons are contributed through the stable scm/title menu API.
• VS Code's stable API does not let extensions place custom buttons directly inside the built-in Commit button row, so the Changes view title bar is the closest supported placement.
• By default, only Stash all changes silently is enabled there; the staged and message-prompting variants stay off until you enable them in settings.

Section hover actions

• Local — New Branch, Sync All Branches, Pull All Branch Changes
• Remote — Fetch All, Fetch All (Prune)
• Stash — Pop Latest Stash, Apply Latest Stash
• Worktree — Create New Worktree... (from the current branch), Prune Worktrees...
• Hooks — Enable All Hooks appears when at least one hook is disabled, and Disable All Hooks appears when at least one hook is enabled
• Tags — Create Tag... (on the current branch), Push All Tags

For the Tags and Worktree section shortcuts, the extension uses the currently checked out branch as the source ref when you trigger the action from the section itself.

Worktree item hover actions

• Hover a specific worktree item to reveal Open Worktree, Open Worktree in New Window, and—when the worktree is in a removable state—Remove Worktree.
• Right-click a linked worktree item to Rename Worktree..., Open Worktree in Terminal, Copy Worktree Ref, Lock Worktree..., Unlock Worktree, or Prune Worktrees... depending on whether that worktree is detached, locked, or prunable.
• Locked and prunable worktrees hide destructive rename/remove actions until you unlock them or prune stale metadata first.

Tag and stash item hover actions

• Hover a specific tag item to reveal Checkout Tag, Push Tag, and Delete Tag.
• Hover a specific stash item to reveal Pop Stash, Apply Stash, and Drop Stash.

Hook item actions

• Hover a specific hook item to reveal Enable Hook or Disable Hook, plus Edit Hook.
• Double-click a hook item to open Edit Hook directly.
• Right-click a hook item to use the same actions from the context menu.
• The Hooks section appears only when the current repository has configured local or shared hooks.
• Shared hooks are read from the repository's configured core.hooksPath; if that path lives outside .git/hooks, use Refresh after editing those files elsewhere.

Remote delete behavior

• Live remote branches still use git push <remote> --delete <branch>.
• If a local pre-push hook blocks deletion, the extension offers Retry Without Hook… and only asks for a modal confirmation before bypassing local hooks with --no-verify.
• If a remote-tracking branch belongs to a remote that no longer exists locally, it is shown as a stale remote-tracking ref and the extension offers Remove Stale Tracking Ref instead of pretending a remote delete can work.
• If the remote/server rejects deletion, the extension shows details and Git output actions without offering a misleading force-delete path.

Settings

Useful configuration ideas already supported

• New branch creation always performs minimal cleanup to keep names Git-valid, for example feature/hello world?? becomes feature/hello-world
• If the entered text sanitizes down to nothing useful, the prompt asks for a better name instead of silently creating a generic fallback branch
• Turn on gitBranchesPanel.normalizeNewBranchNames if you also want extra cleanup like lowercasing, special-character stripping, and duplicate-dash collapsing, so - Feature / Hello--- World!_@ - becomes feature/hello-world
• Keep gitBranchesPanel.newBranchPrefixes set to feature, bugfix, and hotfix for a lightweight branch-folder picker, or clear it entirely if you prefer typing everything yourself
• Extend gitBranchesPanel.protectedBranchNames with long-lived release or environment branches to add an extra UI safety net before delete commands run
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.showCurrentBranchInfo disabled if you prefer a leaner tree, or turn it back on if you want the current branch banner above the sections again
• Use gitBranchesPanel.toolbar.singleRepository.quickActions and gitBranchesPanel.toolbar.multiRepository.quickActions to reorder the title-bar buttons per mode instead of only hiding them one by one
• In multi-repository mode, ids such as currentBranchAction, pullAllRepositoriesChanges, fetchAll, fetchAllPrune, and advancedActions adapt automatically between active-repository and grouped all-repositories behavior, so one array can still cover both layouts cleanly
• Trim gitBranchesPanel.branchContextMenu.primaryActions down to a smaller ordered list if you want a shorter right-click menu, knowing More Branch Actions... still keeps every supported branch action one click away
• Turn on any of the gitBranchesPanel.branchContextMenu.show* advanced-action toggles if you want rebase, squash-merge, reset, or force-push-with-lease entries visible directly in the first-level branch context menu again
• Keep gitBranchesPanel.tagSortOrder on versionDescending for release-style tags, or switch to recent or alphabetical if your repository uses non-version tag names more heavily
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.multiRepository.mode on auto to keep the familiar flat layout for single-repo workspaces while automatically adding repository containers in polyrepo workspaces
• Switch gitBranchesPanel.multiRepository.mode to singleActiveRepository if you prefer focusing on one repository at a time while using Select Active Repository or Focus Repository from Active Editor to move around; grouped mode now prefers row-specific actions plus all-repositories toolbar actions instead of an explicit select button
• Enable gitBranchesPanel.multiRepository.followActiveEditor if you want the current-branch banner and toolbar actions to follow the repository that owns the file you are editing
• In grouped multi-repository mode, use repository-row hover buttons for repo-specific actions like New Branch, Sync / Publish Current Branch, and Fetch All (Prune), while the top toolbar switches to all-repositories actions
• Hide any section you rarely use through gitBranchesPanel.sections.*.visible; the dedicated Remotes section now starts off by default so the tree can stay leaner unless you actively manage remotes
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.sections.remotes.visible enabled if you want a visible place to fetch, rename, or remove remotes, or keep it hidden if you prefer accessing remote management from commands and the advanced-actions picker only
• Set gitBranchesPanel.tags.defaultType = signedAnnotated if your release process signs tags by default, or leave it on annotated for a safer out-of-the-box flow that does not require signing keys
• Turn on gitBranchesPanel.tags.pushAfterCreate if you usually publish release tags immediately after creating them
• Use Show Tag Details and Copy Tag Target SHA when you need to verify exactly what a release tag points to without dropping to the terminal
• Use More Branch Actions... on a selected branch to access the advanced rebase, reset, squash-merge, and force-push flows without a second nested picker, or turn on the dedicated branchContextMenu.show* settings if you want those commands back in the first-level right-click menu
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.advanced.rebaseAutostash enabled unless you explicitly prefer cancelling rebases whenever the current branch has local changes
• Disable gitBranchesPanel.advanced.allowNonCurrentBranchRebase if you want to keep all rebases scoped to the checked-out branch only
• Use Find Ref... with prefixes like remote:, tag:, stash:, or state:stale when repositories get large and you want a faster path than scrolling the tree
• Keep gitBranchesPanel.search.autoLoadAllSections enabled if you want search and filtering to include collapsed sections, or turn it off if you prefer faster commands over broader result coverage
• Turn on gitBranchesPanel.search.includeHooks if you want hook scripts to show up in Find Ref... results alongside regular Git refs
• Set gitBranchesPanel.remoteHosting.preferredRemote if your branches commonly live on a fork or non-origin remote and you want hosted URLs to default there instead of prompting
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.remoteHosting.compareBase = defaultBranch for PR-style compare pages, or switch to currentBranch / upstream if your workflow prefers browser comparisons against a checked-out or tracked branch
• Use gitBranchesPanel.remoteHosting.customProviders to support self-hosted forge URLs with templates like ${hostRoot}/${namespace}/${repo}/compare/${base}...${branch}
• Use the Remotes section to keep fetch/push URLs visible and copyable without opening .git/config or dropping to a terminal
• Use Compare with Upstream when you want to review a tracked branch's divergence at the file level instead of only relying on the tree's sync icons and counts
• Lower gitBranchesPanel.history.maxCommits if you want faster commit pickers in very large repositories, or keep it higher if you often browse longer-lived release branches
• Turn off gitBranchesPanel.history.includeMerges if you prefer commit pickers that focus on linear feature work instead of merge commits
• Leave gitBranchesPanel.toolbar.showStashSilently off and use the built-in Changes view button by default, or turn the Branches-view stash button back on if you prefer the old placement
• Keep the legacy gitBranchesPanel.toolbar.show* booleans only as simple compatibility toggles if you have not explicitly set the new ordered toolbar arrays yet
• Enable any of the additional gitBranchesPanel.changesView.showStash* settings if you want staged-only stash buttons or stash commands that prompt for an optional message
• Hide any toolbar quick action you never use to keep the title bar compact
• Combine sortOrder = recent with folder grouping for large feature-branch heavy repositories

Development

Requirements

• Node.js 18+ for local development
• Node.js 20+ recommended for creating .vsix packages
• Visual Studio Code 1.85+

Run locally

From the repository root:

npm install
npm run test:git-branches-panel
code .

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host using the shared workspace launch configuration.

You can also run npm run compile, npm run lint, or npm run test from this folder; those scripts delegate to the repository root tooling.

Create a .vsix file

Quickest option from the repository root:

npm run package:git-branches-panel

Or from this extension folder directly:

npm run package

The generated file is written to this folder as git-branches-panel-<version>.vsix and can then be uploaded to the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See the repository-level CONTRIBUTING.md for development workflow and quality checks.

Support

For bug reports, feature requests, and usage questions, see SUPPORT.md.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.