Diffr

Pick two things and diff them. Context-menu git diffing for VS Code — no panels, no sidebars, no activity-bar icons. Just the menus that are already there.

Right-click a commit. Pick what to compare it against (another commit, a branch, a tag, the index, the working copy). Walk through the changed files in a QuickPick that stays open. That's the whole product.

Install

• VS Code: search Diffr in the Extensions view, or
• Command line: code --install-extension nimblesite.diffr
• Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nimblesite.diffr

Diffr depends on the built-in Git extension and needs git on PATH.

Why Diffr?

VS Code's built-in "Open Changes" only diffs a file against its parent commit. To compare anything else — a commit against a branch tip, your working copy against three commits back, a single file across two arbitrary refs — you end up in git diff on the terminal or installing a heavy "git client" extension.

Diffr fills exactly that gap with the smallest possible surface area:

• No new UI. Every entry point hangs off menus VS Code already shows (SCM history, SCM resource state, editor tab, file explorer) plus a few palette commands.
• No custom renderer. Diffs open in vscode.diff — the same native diff editor as everything else.
• One QuickPick per flow. Browsing many changed files is a list, not a panel. The picker stays open after each diff so you can fly through a review.
• Pure shells out to git. No libgit2, no native binaries, no surprises about what's being compared.

At a glance

Source Control (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G)
└── History
    └── <right-click a commit>
        ├── Diffr: Compare with…              ← pick anything for Side B
        ├── Diffr: Compare with Working Copy  ← Side B = on-disk
        └── Diffr: Compare with Previous      ← Side B = parent commit

Source Control → Changes / Staged Changes / Merge Changes
└── <right-click a file>
    └── Diffr: Compare with Commit…           ← pick commit; diff vs working copy

Editor tab (right-click)         ──┐
File Explorer (right-click file) ──┼──► Diffr: Compare with Commit…
                                   └──   (uses that file as the target)

Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P)
├── Diffr: Compare Two Commits
├── Diffr: Compare with Commit…              ← uses focused editor's file
└── Diffr: Reopen Last Comparison

Diff tabs are titled human-first, e.g. a1b2c3d ↔ Working Copy — src/foo.ts or a1b2c3d ↔ 9f8e7d6 — src/foo.ts. No internal labels, no debug strings.

Every command

There are seven commands. Three are reachable from the Command Palette; four are reachable only from a right-click menu (they need a target — a commit, a file — that the menu provides).

From the SCM History view (right-click a commit)

Open Source Control (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G), expand a repository's History section, and right-click any commit:

These three are intentionally hidden from the Command Palette — they only make sense when invoked against a specific commit, which the right-click target provides.

From the SCM Changes view (right-click a changed file)

Right-click any file under Changes, Staged Changes, or Merge Changes:

From the editor tab title (right-click the file's tab)

From the File Explorer (right-click a file)

From the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P)

Type Diffr: to filter. Three entries appear:

Diffr: Show Logs (diffr.showLogs) exists but is hidden from the palette — it's reserved for the extension to surface its OutputChannel programmatically. Open it manually via View → Output → "Diffr".

What Side B can be

Whenever Diffr asks you to pick Side B, you get four choices:

• Working Copy — the on-disk files in the repo (uncommitted changes included).
• Index — the staging area (what git diff --cached would compare against).
• Pick a commit… — choose from a QuickPick of recent log entries.
• Pick a branch or tag… — choose from all refs; resolved to its tip commit.

Requirements

• VS Code ^1.85.0
• Git on PATH
• The built-in Git extension (Diffr depends on it via extensionDependencies)

Troubleshooting

• "No git repository found" — Diffr uses the built-in Git extension's repo list. If VS Code doesn't see your repo, neither will Diffr. Open the Source Control view and confirm the repo appears there.
• Diffr menus don't appear in the SCM History view — make sure the workspace has commits and that you're right-clicking inside the History section (not Changes).
• Anything else — View → Output → "Diffr" shows structured logs for every operation. Or run Diffr: Show Logs to focus the channel.

Issues & contributions

Bugs, feature requests, and PRs welcome at https://github.com/Nimblesite/Diffr/issues.

License

MIT