Meta-Repo Source Control

A VSCode extension for multi-repo / meta-repo workspaces — directories that contain many independent git checkouts side-by-side instead of one monorepo.

Contributes a clean Workspace Changes tree to the Source Control sidebar that lists only repos with uncommitted changes, expandable to their changed files. No per-repo commit input boxes. No empty-repo clutter. Click a file to open its diff.

Why this exists

VSCode's native Source Control panel was designed for monorepos: one workspace, one git repo, one commit input. When the workspace contains many git repos as siblings (a meta-repo pattern common in microservice shops, ROS workspaces, and similar layouts), the native panel renders one full SCM provider per repo — including the commit message input box, Commit button, and changes list, for every repo — even repos with no changes. With twenty sibling repos, that's twenty commit boxes stacked vertically.

There's no native VSCode setting to hide repos with no changes (open feature request: microsoft/vscode#33334, unimplemented since 2017) and no setting to hide the commit input. Extensions cannot modify the native SCM panel because VSCode's renderer DOM is not part of the extension API surface.

This extension's solution: contribute a separate tree view that does what the native panel won't — show only dirty repos, no commit clutter, real file-type icons, click-to-diff. The native panel can stay collapsed.

Features

• Auto-discovers git repos as immediate subdirectories of any open workspace folder (also handles single-repo workspaces).
• Hides repos with no changes — empty repos are skipped, not just sorted to the bottom.
• Per-file rows with the user's icon theme (Material Icon Theme, etc.) — same icons as Explorer.
• Expand/Collapse all buttons in the view header (collapse is built-in; expand walks repos and reveals).
• Refresh button for manual re-scan after terminal-side git operations.
• Click a file → diff opens in VSCode's diff editor (working tree vs HEAD), focusing the diff so you can edit immediately.
• Discard Changes inline button on each file row, with a modal confirmation. Tracked files: git checkout HEAD -- <file>. Untracked files: deletes from disk.
• Auto-refreshes on external edits — when an external tool (terminal git, AI agents like Claude Code, other editors) modifies a file in the workspace, the view updates within ~500 ms automatically. No need to click refresh.
• Stable item IDs so VSCode preserves expansion state across refreshes (collapsing one repo doesn't re-expand on save).

Install

code --install-extension mattgle.metarepo-sc

Or search for "Meta-Repo Source Control" in the Extensions sidebar.

The extension activates automatically when VSCode finishes starting. The only runtime requirement is git on PATH (which you already have, since you're using a git workspace).

Devcontainer setup

To make the extension load automatically in a devcontainer, add it to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json:

{
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": ["mattgle.metarepo-sc"],
    },
  },
}

When the container is built, VSCode auto-installs the extension. No Dockerfile changes are needed — the extension has no native dependencies beyond git, which every common base image already has (mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/*, ubuntu, debian, alpine with apk add git, etc.).

If your base image somehow doesn't have git, add it to your Dockerfile:

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y git && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

That's the full devcontainer setup. After rebuild, open the Source Control sidebar (⌘+⇧+G G / Ctrl+Shift+G G) — the WORKSPACE CHANGES section appears alongside the native Source Control list.

Usage

After install + reload, open the Source Control sidebar (⌘+⇧+G G). You'll see a new section titled WORKSPACE CHANGES above (or below) the native Source Control list.

WORKSPACE CHANGES                          ⟳  ⊞  ⊟
─────────────────────────────────────
▼ auth-service                                  main
   routes.ts  src                                 M
▼ payments-api                          feat/refunds
   handler.ts  src                                M
   config.json  src                               U

• Header buttons: ⟳ Refresh, ⊞ Expand All, ⊟ Collapse All.
• Per-file inline buttons: 📄 Open File (no diff), ↩ Discard Changes.
• Click a file row → opens the diff editor.
• Status decorations (M / U / A / D, plus colored text) come from VSCode's git extension applying its FileDecorationProvider to our resourceUri — no extra wiring needed.

Optional: avoid diff tab buildup

By default, every file you click opens its diff in a new editor tab. After clicking through 20 files in the tree, you'll have 20 diff tabs piled up. Most users find this fine — you can switch between them, close ones you've reviewed, etc.

If you'd rather have a "click-through" workflow where each new diff replaces the previous one (so the editor pane stays at one diff at a time), VSCode has built-in settings for that. Add to your user settings.json (⌘+⇧+P → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)):

{
  // Auto-close older diff tabs as you click through files in the tree
  // view — keeps the editor pane to one diff at a time.
  "workbench.editor.limit.enabled": true,
  "workbench.editor.limit.value": 1,
  "workbench.editor.limit.perEditorGroup": false,
}

Or, to apply this only inside a specific devcontainer (without affecting your global VSCode), add it under customizations.vscode.settings in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json.

These settings are not part of the extension — they're VSCode core, and the same settings affect any other tab-opening flow (clicking files in Explorer, going-to-definition, etc.). Try them and see if you like the behavior; if not, just remove them.

Architecture

The extension is a single TypeScript file (~330 lines) bundled to ~7 KB with esbuild.

src/extension.ts
├── Git helpers                  exec git status / branch lookups
├── openDiffForFile()            opens working-tree-vs-HEAD diff for a file
├── WorkspaceChangesProvider     vscode.TreeDataProvider impl
├── RepoTreeItem / FileTreeItem  typed TreeItem subclasses
├── shouldIgnorePath()           filter for the broad fs watcher
└── activate()                   wires everything up

Key technical decisions:

• Parallel git status via Promise.all — listing 19 repos sequentially takes ~190 ms (visible loading bar); parallel is ~10 ms (invisible).
• Two-source refresh — VSCode-internal events (onDidSaveTextDocument, onDidCreateFiles, etc.) fire fast for in-editor saves; a broad createFileSystemWatcher('**/*') catches changes from external tools (terminal git, AI agents, other editors). shouldIgnorePath() filters out .git/ internals, node_modules/, build outputs, *.tsbuildinfo, and OS metadata to prevent refresh churn. Both paths feed a single 500 ms debounced refresh.
• Stable TreeItem IDs (repo:<path> and file:<repo>:<file>) — required for tree.reveal() to work and for VSCode to preserve expansion state across refreshes.
• getParent() implementation — required for tree.reveal() to function at all; without it, expand-all silently no-ops.
• HEAD blobs in <repo>/.git/metarepo-sc-tmp/ — VSCode's default **/.git exclusion automatically hides them from Explorer, search, and the TypeScript language service. Filename matches the working file so diff tab titles are clean.
• Untracked directory short-circuit — git status --porcelain --untracked-files=all expands directories to their files, but the click handler still defends against directory targets in case any slip through (e.g. submodules).

Troubleshooting

Contributing

This extension lives in mattgle/meta-repo-source-control. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, build/test commands, and PR guidelines.

License

MIT