Bramble
A VS Code extension that shows, in a single tab, what your development department is
doing on GitHub right now: branches, open pull requests and GitHub Actions workflow
runs across all repositories in an organization.
Install it from the VS Code Marketplace, then press Ctrl+Shift+P and run
Bramble: Open Dashboard — that's it.
Features
- Signs in as you using VS Code's built-in GitHub Authentication API — no personal
access tokens to create or store.
- Workflows waiting / running now — surfaces runs that are
in_progress, queued
or waiting (e.g. pending a required approval).
- Open pull requests and branches, grouped by repository. The default branch
is omitted; branches are ordered by branch name and pull requests list drafts last.
- Expandable branch stats — click a branch's ▶ to load, on demand, how many commits
it is ahead of and behind its default branch, plus the number of differing commits and
changed files and a "Compare on GitHub" link. Results are cached for the session.
- Recent workflow history — the last 24 hours, capped at 100 runs (newest first).
- Everything links out — repository names, branches, pull requests and workflow runs
all open the corresponding page on GitHub.
- Toggle filters — My PRs, My branches and Branches without a PR (all on by
default and remembered between sessions), plus a search box that filters everything
by repo, branch or title.
- Auto-refresh on a configurable interval, plus a manual refresh button.
- GitHub-style icons for branches, pull requests and workflow runs, with a clear
"Data from GitHub" source label.
Getting started
Bramble is a ready-to-use extension — there's nothing to build or configure to start.
- Open the Command Palette with
Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS).
- Run Bramble: Open Dashboard.
- Approve the GitHub sign-in prompt when asked.
- Enter the GitHub organization (or user) you want to see. Bramble remembers it, so
you only do this once. To change it later, run the command again or edit the
bramble.organization setting.
Tip: set bramble.openOnStartup to true to have the dashboard open automatically when
VS Code starts (as long as you're already signed in to GitHub).
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
bramble.organization |
"" |
GitHub organization (or user) to load. Prompted if empty. |
bramble.filterMyBranches |
true |
Show only your branches in the Branches list. |
bramble.filterMyPrs |
true |
Show only your pull requests in the Open pull requests list. |
bramble.hideBranchesWithPr |
true |
Hide branches that already have an open pull request. |
bramble.openOnStartup |
false |
Open the dashboard on startup (only if already signed in). |
bramble.refreshIntervalSeconds |
60 |
Auto-refresh interval. 0 disables it. |
bramble.branchesPerRepo |
50 |
Max branches loaded per repository. |
bramble.workflowRunsPerRepo |
15 |
Max recent workflow runs loaded per repository. |
Required scopes
The extension requests the repo, workflow and read:org scopes so it can read
repository metadata, workflow runs and organization membership.
How it works
Repositories, branches (with commit author) and open pull requests are loaded through a
single paginated GraphQL query. Workflow runs are fetched in parallel via REST
(the Actions API is not exposed through GraphQL). For ~40 repositories this stays well
within the authenticated rate limit of 5,000 requests/hour.
Development
Only needed if you want to modify or contribute to the extension — regular users can
ignore this section.
- Clone the repository and run
npm install.
- Press
F5 to launch an Extension Development Host with Bramble loaded.
- In that window, run Bramble: Open Dashboard from the Command Palette.
Useful scripts: npm run compile (build), npm run watch (rebuild on change),
npm run package (build a .vsix).
Credits
Icons are from GitHub Octicons, licensed under MIT.
