Git Lanes

A clean branch graph for VS Code: every branch in its own lane, the default branch on the left, remote and local at a glance.

Install

• From VS Code: open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), search for Git Lanes, and click Install. Or run ext install lesyhau.git-lanes from the Quick Open (Ctrl+P).
• From a VSIX: download git-lanes-<version>.vsix from Releases, then run Extensions: Install from VSIX… in VS Code.

Open a folder that is a git repository. The Git Lanes view appears at the bottom of the Explorer, under Outline and Timeline. Click Git Lanes in the status bar to open the full graph in an editor tab.

Features

• Default branch on the far left. origin/HEAD decides which branch that is (falling back to main, master, trunk, develop). The gitLanes.defaultBranch setting overrides it.

• Every branch keeps its own vertical lane, placed by three rules:

  • A branch always branches off to the right of the branch it starts from.
  • A branch always merges into a branch on its left. The one exception is a branch's own parent merged back into it ("sync" merges).
  • Each branch takes the lowest lane these rules allow that is free for its whole lifetime, so lanes are reused and no space is wasted.

  Among the arrangements that follow these rules, the solver picks the one with the fewest crossings, then the fewest lanes, then the shortest jumps.

  Some crossings can't be avoided: two branches that overlap in time without one containing the other always cross once.

• Smooth, consistent curves. Every branch-off and merge is an S-curve that leaves the commit dot at an angle and bends back into its lane, with both turns in plain sight: just above the parent for a branch-off, just below the merge commit for a merge. The further a curve jumps, the taller it is, so every curve turns about as gently as one to the next lane. Curves that fan out of one commit nest instead of crossing, and a curve makes room for any commit dot it passes.

• The graph takes only the room it needs. Each row's message starts right after the lines passing through that row.

• Remote first, local at a glance.

  Looks like	Means
  Solid badge, cloud icon	Remote branch
  Outlined badge, laptop icon	Local branch (↑ ahead / ↓ behind its upstream)
  Solid badge, both icons	Local and remote branch at the same commit
  Filled dot, solid line	Commit on a remote
  Hollow dot, dashed line	Local-only commit (not pushed)
  Ring around the dot, HEAD tag	Checked-out commit

  Remote branches are placed first. Local-only branches fill the lanes that are left. All / Remote hides local-only work without moving any lane.

• Branch and tag names sit next to the branch's latest commit dot.

• Fetch from the cloud icon in the view title, the "Fetched 2 min ago" status at the top of the graph (click it), or the status bar. While fetching, the icon turns into a spinner and the status reads "Fetching…".

• Git Lanes button in the status bar opens the full graph in the editor area, for big repositories where the sidebar is cramped. The view's "open in editor" button does the same.

• The editor tab shows a wider table with Description, Author, Date and Commit columns, plus search.

• Commit details open in an editor tab: changed files (click one for a diff), parents, refs, and Checkout, Create Branch, Copy Hash and Push (for local-only commits). Right-click a commit in the graph for the same actions.

Automatic fetch

On by default (gitLanes.autoFetch.enabled). A fetch runs:

Automatic fetches never run more than once every 30 s, and they never show a credential prompt.

• After a failure, it waits 1, 2, 4 … up to 30 minutes before trying again.
• When you're offline, it retries every 5 minutes.
• When the remote needs you to sign in, automatic fetching pauses until a manual Fetch succeeds. A manual fetch that needs sign-in uses VS Code's Git sign-in.

Settings

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/lesyhau/git-lanes.

Development

Requires Node.js 22+ and git.

npm install
npm run build      # dist/extension.js + dist/webview/*.js
npm test           # layout engine, git reader (on a temp repo), fetch policy
npm run typecheck
npm run package    # git-lanes-<version>.vsix

Press F5 in VS Code to open an Extension Development Host.

How it is organised:

• src/git/reader.ts: reads refs, remotes, HEAD and git log --date-order, and parses commit details.
• src/graph/chains.ts: splits history into first-parent chains (one per branch). Merged-and-deleted branches get their own chains.
• src/graph/layout.ts: the lane solver.
  • It derives the "right of" rules from branch-offs and merges.
  • It places chains in a priority order, each in the lowest lane allowed and free.
  • It scores each layout by crossings, width, jump length and moved branches.
  • With few branches it tries every valid order. With many, it repairs crossings one by one, then narrows the graph, within a time budget.
• src/graph/model.ts: builds badges, local-only flags and the default branch, and produces the drawable model.
• src/fetch/policy.ts: decides when to auto-fetch.
• src/controller.ts: repository selection, refresh on ref changes, fetching and the status bar.
• src/webview/*: the graph renderer (sidebar and editor tab) and the commit details page.

Releasing

Work branches (feature/, bugfix/, chore/, docs/ and so on) come off dev and merge back into it. main changes only through a dev → main pull request.

1. On a release/x.y.z branch off dev, bump version in package.json and move the changelog's Unreleased entries under the new version. Merge it into dev.
2. Open the dev → main pull request and merge it with a merge commit.
3. Tag main and push the tag: git tag vx.y.z && git push origin vx.y.z.

The Release workflow then tests and packages the extension and attaches the .vsix to a GitHub Release. It also publishes it, but only when the repository has the tokens:

• to the VS Code Marketplace with a VSCE_PAT secret;
• to Open VSX (VSCodium, Cursor and other editors) with an OVSX_PAT secret.

Without them, upload the .vsix from the GitHub Release by hand.

License

MIT