A JetBrains-style branches popup for VS Code and Cursor. Pick a branch, drill down into actions, and switch between multiple repositories in the same popup — all without leaving the keyboard.
Features
Keyboard-first popup — Cmd+Shift+\`` (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+`` opens a QuickPick listing all branches.
Multi-repo support — in a workspace with several repositories the popup shows them all, each with a colored dot and its current branch. Switch repositories inline without closing the popup.
Drill-down actions — pressing Enter on a branch opens a nested action menu (Checkout, Update, Merge, Rebase, Push, Pull, Compare, Show log, Rename, Delete, New branch from here). A "Back to branches" item returns you to the branch list.
Update without checkout — every branch in the popup has an Update action that fast-forwards it to the latest remote without checking it out. For local branches with no upstream, the extension auto-detects <remote>/<branchName> via git ls-remote. For remote-tracking branches it just refetches.
Smart Checkout — if checking out a branch would overwrite your uncommitted changes, a dialog offers Smart Checkout (stash → switch → pop), Force Checkout (discard), or Don't Checkout — the JetBrains affordance, no more error: Your local changes ... would be overwritten by checkout.
Push / Pull with remote selection — if there is no upstream, the extension prompts for a remote and sets it up with push -u.
Smart Pull — when branches have diverged (both you and the remote have new commits, so fast-forward is impossible), the extension asks how to reconcile: Merge (classic merge commit) or Rebase (linear history). No more cryptic hint: You have divergent branches stops. Dirty working tree is auto-stashed and popped back after the operation. If the strategy stops on a conflict, Ocelot Merge Resolver kicks in automatically.
Compare branches — opens a markdown document showing commits that are ahead and behind relative to the current branch.
Show log — opens git log --graph --decorate output for any branch in a new editor tab.
Status bar integration — a branch indicator and a sync indicator with ahead/behind counts.
Auto-scanning of workspace — nested repos up to depth 3 are discovered automatically even when the built-in Git scanner misses them.
Usage
Open the popup: Cmd+Shift+\`` / Ctrl+Shift+`` or run Git Branch Switcher: Show Branches Popup from the command palette.
Click the branch name in the status bar to open the popup.
Click the sync icon in the status bar to fetch and pull the current branch.
Settings
Key
Type
Default
Purpose
branchesPopup.pullStrategy
"ask" \| "merge" \| "rebase" \| "ffOnly"
"ask"
How Pull / Update reconcile divergent branches. ask — try fast-forward, prompt Merge/Rebase if diverged. merge, rebase, ffOnly — pin one strategy, no prompt.
Requirements
The built-in vscode.git extension must be enabled.
