Git Shelve — IntelliJ-style stash for VSCode & Cursor
A minimal IntelliJ-style Shelve for Git, brought to VSCode and Cursor. Set aside uncommitted changes as patch files — an alternative to git stash that lives outside Git's stash stack and survives branch switches.
git stash is tied to your repo's stash stack and can be awkward across branch switches and merges. IntelliJ's "Shelf" stores changes as plain .patch files in your workspace — easy to inspect, share, and re-apply anywhere.
Features
Shelve Changes — saves your current uncommitted changes (staged + unstaged) as a named patch under .vscode/shelves/<name>.patch, then reverts your working tree.
Unshelve — re-applies a shelved patch onto your working tree (uses git apply --3way, so partial conflicts are marked, not lost).
View Diff — opens the .patch file directly.
Delete Shelf — removes the patch from disk.
A dedicated Shelf view in the Source Control panel, right below "Changes".
Usage
Open the Source Control panel.
Find the Shelf view (below "Changes").
Click the archive icon in the view title to shelve your current changes — give it a name.
Right-click any shelf entry to Unshelve or Delete. Click an entry to view its diff.
Storage
Shelves are stored as patch files inside your workspace at:
.vscode/shelves/<name>.patch
Add this line to your .gitignore if you don't want personal WIP shelves committed:
.vscode/shelves/
Limitations
Tracked files only. Newly added (untracked) files are not currently shelved — they remain in your working tree after shelve.
Binary files are included via git diff --binary.
Commands
Command
Description
Shelve Changes
Save current uncommitted changes as a named shelf and revert the working tree.
