Polylog

One git log across every repository in your workspace.

Every VS Code git extension gives you a repository picker: one repo's history at a time. Polylog merges them. Every commit from every repository sits in one list, newest first. You can search and filter all of them at once, and click any commit to see its files in VS Code's own diff editor.

Ticket ACME-142 touched four repositories. Searching for it once in Polylog lists all four commits, and each one opens in the native diff editor.

Screenshots

The merged log. Every commit from every repo, with a colored chip showing where it lives. The Changes tree follows your selection, and clicking a file opens its diff above.

File History. Right-click any file and choose Polylog: File History to get the commits that touched it, across renames. The diff follows as you step through them with ↑/↓.

A branch in every repo. Type origin/release-1.4 to see that branch in every repository that has it. The others fall back to their current branch, and the footer shows how many repos use each.

Your theme, not ours. Every color comes from your VS Code theme, so Polylog looks like the rest of your editor. That includes light, dark and both high-contrast themes.

Quick Start

1. Install Polylog (extension ID lntvan166.polylog-git) in any of these ways:
   • Extensions view: search for lntvan166.polylog-git, or "Polylog", and pick the one by lntvan166. Another publisher's unrelated extension is also called polylog.
   • Quick Open (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P): ext install lntvan166.polylog-git
   • Command line: code --install-extension lntvan166.polylog-git
   • Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf: it is on Open VSX under the same ID.
   • Listings: VS Code Marketplace · Open VSX
2. Open a folder or multi-root workspace containing more than one git repository.
3. Run Polylog: Open Merged Log from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P), or click the Polylog tab in the bottom panel next to Terminal.

Nothing to configure. Polylog shows every repository VS Code's Git extension has open, plus any it finds in your workspace folders (up to polylog.scanDepth levels deep). Use polylog.excludeRepos to leave some out.

Features

• One merged log. Every repository's commits in one list, newest first by commit date, with a colored chip showing each commit's repo.
• Search across every repo. Search commit messages (literal, case-insensitive) across every repository at once.
• Filters:
  • Authors: type a name or email. Enter, a comma or a picked suggestion adds it as a chip, and a commit by any of the chips matches. Suggestions list who committed recently across your repos. Me is a toggle inside the box that adds each repo's own user.email.
  • Path: only commits touching a file, a folder (everything inside it), or a glob, in every repository at once. Paths are relative to each repo's root. *.sql matches in any folder; db/*.sql only in db/.
  • Branch, applied in every repo that has it.
  • Date range: last 24 hours by default, or 7 days, 30 days, all time, or a custom range.
• Repositories pane. Pick which repositories to show, with fuzzy search and multi-select. Toggle it with Group by Repository in the Log's title bar.
  • Profiles. Save the ticked repositories under a name (＋ Save as profile… appears as soon as you pick some, or right-click the Repo List), then click the profile to tick exactly those repositories again. Your other filters stay as they are. Profiles live in the workspace setting polylog.profiles, one list of repository paths per name, so you can edit them by hand or share them. Right-click a repository for Profiles…, a profile for Update to Current Selection, Rename… and Delete; ⋯ → Switch Profile… works with the Repo List hidden.
  • ↓3 ↑2 beside a name: commits on its upstream you haven't pulled, and commits you haven't pushed, as of the last fetch. Fetch All (the cloud in the Log's toolbar) runs git fetch in every repository, a few at a time, and never prompts for credentials; Polylog fetches only when you ask. Show Only Repositories Behind (right-click, or the Log's … menu) then ticks just the ones with commits to pull. Right-click a repository showing ↓ to Pull it: through VS Code's own Git (your pull settings, its credential prompts, conflicts in Source Control), or git pull --ff-only for a repository VS Code's Git does not have open. Pull All Repositories Behind (the Log's … menu, or right-click a repository) brings every repository with ↓ up to what the last fetch brought, fast-forward only and without fetching again; Fetch and Pull All fetches first. A repository that diverged, or whose local changes touch the incoming files, is left as it was and named.
  • Right-click a repository, in the pane or on any of its commits in the Log: Show Only This Repository, Hide from the Log, Show All Repositories, Open Folder in New Window, Copy Path, or Exclude from Polylog (adds its path to polylog.excludeRepos, with an Undo).
• Right-click a commit in the Log: Copy Commit ID, Copy Message (the whole message), or Open on Remote, its page on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps (from the repository's origin; credentials in the URL are never opened).
• Native Changes tree. Its title says what it shows (acme-api · 3f9a2c1 · 2 files, or … · uncommitted · …). Git status colors and A/M/D/R badges. Click a file to open its diff in the editor area. Right-click the commit to copy its SHA or message. All Files (in its title bar) shows the commit's whole tree, like the Explorer: the folders holding changes open, each other folder read only when you open it, deleted files still listed, and unchanged files opening as they were at that commit.
• Combined Changes. Ctrl-click (⌘-click on macOS) or Shift-click commits in the Log to select several, in any repositories: one fix spread over acme-web and acme-api, say. The Changes tree then lists each changed file once, under its repository, with the selected commits that touched it. A file's diff shows only what those commits did to it: a teammate's commit in between appears as unchanged context, not as part of your change. When an unselected commit edited the same lines, the two can't be shown apart: the file gets a ⚠, and its diff runs from before the first selected commit to after the last, with a title that says so. Files added and removed again within the selection are listed in a note instead. Up to 100 commits; Clear Selection (in the Changes title bar) goes back to one. It only shows changes: nothing is squashed, rebased or written to your repositories.
• Blame in diffs. Put the cursor on a line of any Polylog diff or revision to see who last changed it, as of the commit shown (hover for the details). It uses the format of git.blame.editorDecoration.template; turn it off with polylog.blame.
• Open File on any Polylog diff (the title-bar button, or a file's right-click in Changes) opens the file as it is in your workspace now, at the same line number.
• Uncommitted changes, across every repo:
  • The Uncommitted view (in the Polylog side bar, like Source Control: its button in the Log toolbar shows it, and hides it again): one row per ticked repository with uncommitted work, its Staged and Changes groups, files under folders. Hover for Stage, Unstage, Discard (a file, a folder, a group, staged or not; it always asks first) and, on a repository, Commit…; right-click a repository for Stage All, Unstage All and Discard All Changes (everything in it, back to the last commit). All through VS Code's own Git, so Source Control stays in step. Each file opens the diff Source Control would.
  • Commits | Uncommitted, the switch at the top of the Log: its badge counts your uncommitted files. The Uncommitted side lists the repositories with work (files, a change meter, staged and new tags, when last edited); click one to review its files in the Changes tree. Right-click a row, or the Changes tree, for Commit…, Stage All, Unstage All and Discard All Changes; right-click a file or folder there to Stage, Unstage or Discard it. Ctrl/Shift-click to act on several rows at once (one prompt, even across repositories).
  • Read once in the background after the Log's first page, then kept current by your saves and VS Code's Git, one repository at a time.
• Compare Branches (⇄ in the Log toolbar, or the Command Palette) opens the Polylog Compare panel tab, hidden until then; ⇄ again (or × in its title) hides it: three views side by side. It compares two branches in every ticked repository, for example origin/release-1.4 (◀ left, what you merge from) and origin/main (▶ right, where it goes).

  • Repositories lists the repositories whose files differ, in their Repo List colors (commit counts are in each row's tooltip; they mislead when the same change travels by cherry-pick). A ▸ unfolds the changes committed on both sides (cherry-picks). Repositories that lack a branch are listed at the bottom. At the top: ◀ left ▾ ⇄ ▶ right ▾, each box opening a searchable branch list (recent pairs, ★ favorites, local, remote), then Files | Commits and Refresh.

  • Left and Right show the selected repository's two sides:

    • Files (the default): what each side changed since the branches split, as a folder tree with your file icons. A file changed on both sides is marked both. One the two branches now have the same (a cherry-pick: nothing to merge) is hidden, and counted in the title; Show Files Already on Both (the filter in the title bar) lists it, dimmed.
    • Commits: each side's commits, each expanding to its files.

    Click a file to open it as the two branches have it now (the target branch on the left); right-click → Changes since the Split shows only what that side changed (what the merge brings in).

• File History. From the Explorer, an editor, a tab, or a file in Changes. Follows renames, and always shows every commit of the file: it sets your date range, search and author aside while open, and gives them back when you close it.
• Keyboard first. The selection drives everything, so you can review a day's work without touching the mouse.

Where things are: the Polylog panel tab holds the Log and the Changes view; the Polylog Compare tab holds Compare; the Uncommitted view is in the Polylog side bar. Drag any view elsewhere and VS Code keeps it there (views you moved yourself stay put after an update).

How It Works

 Filters (search · authors · path · branch · dates · repos)
                 │  passed straight through as git log flags
     ┌───────────┼───────────┬───────────┐
  git log     git log     git log     git log      one process per repository,
  acme-web    acme-api    acme-libs   …            16 at a time
     └───────────┴─────┬─────┴───────────┘
                       ▼
          merged by commit date, streamed a page at a time
                       ▼
             Log  ·  Changes  ·  diff editor

Polylog has no index, no cache and no database. Git does all the searching. Every filter becomes a git log flag (--grep, --author, --since/--until, a ref, a pathspec), so each repository returns only matching commits, and Polylog merges those already-filtered lists.

On a 68-repository, 16,000-commit workspace:

• The full git log fan-out takes 25 ms.
• A message search across all of history takes 640 ms.
• The first rows appear 0.4 s after the panel opens.

An index would add a background process and a way to show stale results, for a gain measured in milliseconds. Typing in a filter waits 250 ms before searching. A new search stops any git processes still running, rather than waiting for them.

Unrelated repositories share no history, so the merge is by commit date. A rebase or a skewed clock can place a commit out of order.

Extension Settings

Requirements

Polylog only reads history, except when you ask it to fetch or pull.

Contributing & Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.

Development:

npm install
npm run compile && npm test          # lint/typecheck: npm run lint, npm run typecheck
npm run harness                      # webview in a browser: http://localhost:5178/gallery.html
xvfb-run -a npm run test:integration # real VS Code, three fixture repos
xvfb-run -a npm run perf:startup     # time to first rows on a generated 68-repo workspace
node dev/demo/seed.mjs               # the demo workspace in the screenshots: /tmp/polylog-demo
dev/demo/capture.sh <polylog.vsix>   # re-shoot the screenshots and GIF (Linux, Xvfb)

License

MIT — see LICENSE