CommitDiary for VS Code

Turn your Git commits into a private work journal and clear engineering updates.

CommitDiary starts locally in VS Code. It discovers your commits, groups them by intent and affected component, and helps you review the story behind your work. An account is optional.

• Install CommitDiary from the VS Code Marketplace
• Open the CommitDiary product website
• Read the privacy and data boundary

What you can do

• Keep a local journal of your Git commits.
• See commit categories, affected components, trends, and activity metrics.
• Continue working offline and keep pending sync work in a local queue.
• Optionally sync authorized commit data for hosted history and engineering reports.
• Use hosted sharing, activity badges, and Discord delivery when your plan includes them.

CommitDiary supports your engineering judgment. Review generated reports against the code and test results before using them in standups, reviews, portfolios, or release notes.

Start locally

1. Install CommitDiary from the Marketplace.
2. Open a trusted VS Code workspace that contains a Git repository.
3. Run CommitDiary: Show My Commits from the Command Palette.
4. Select the CommitDiary item in the status bar whenever you want to return to your journal.

CommitDiary uses your repository's Git name and email to identify your commits. If your work uses more than one email address, add the extra addresses under CommitDiary: User › Emails in VS Code Settings.

Set up optional cloud sync

You do not need an account for the local journal. Set up cloud sync only when you want hosted history, reports, sharing, badges, or Discord delivery.

1. Open the CommitDiary dashboard and sign in.
2. Open Settings → API Keys and create an API key.
3. In VS Code, open the Command Palette.
4. Run CommitDiary: Setup Cloud Sync.
5. Choose Enter API Key and paste the key into the secure prompt.

CommitDiary stores the key in VS Code SecretStorage. It does not keep new API keys in visible user or workspace settings.

After setup, the extension syncs after eligible commits and runs the schedule selected in your settings. If you are offline, pending work remains queued locally for a later retry.

Data and privacy

CommitDiary does not upload your whole repository.

The local journal can contain commit identifiers, messages, author details, changed file names, categories, affected components, change counts, and bounded code excerpts used to explain a commit. Cloud sync sends authorized journal data only after you configure an API key and leave cloud sync enabled.

By default, author email addresses are replaced with hashes during sync. Enable CommitDiary: Sync › Include Emails only if you want the original author email addresses included.

Optional telemetry is off by default. If enabled, it sends sync reliability information such as event type, commit count, payload size, internal batch identifiers, timestamps, and error details. It does not send source files through the telemetry endpoint.

You can stop cloud sync at any time:

• Turn off CommitDiary: Sync › Enabled in VS Code Settings; or
• Run CommitDiary: Remove API Key to remove the stored credential.

For the complete policy, read CommitDiary privacy and data handling.

Commands

• CommitDiary: Show My Commits — scan and view commits attributed to you.
• CommitDiary: Show Commit Metrics — view local activity trends and breakdowns.
• CommitDiary: Setup Cloud Sync — set up, replace, or manage the API key used for optional cloud sync.
• CommitDiary: Open Dashboard — open hosted history, reports, settings, and account features.
• CommitDiary: Sync Now — retry cloud sync without waiting for the next automatic run.
• CommitDiary: Remove API Key — remove the stored key and disable authenticated cloud sync.

CommitDiary also keeps recovery and diagnostic commands available internally for support without adding them to the normal Command Palette.

Settings most people need

• commitDiary.user.emails — additional Git email addresses that identify your commits.
• commitDiary.defaultTimeRange — how much Git history the local journal scans.
• commitDiary.sync.enabled — turns cloud sync on or off.
• commitDiary.sync.autoInterval — scheduled sync frequency: never, hourly, or daily.
• commitDiary.sync.includeEmails — includes original author emails in cloud sync when enabled.
• commitDiary.notifications.verbosity — chooses quiet, normal, or verbose notifications.
• commitDiary.telemetry.enabled — controls optional reliability telemetry; off by default.

Other settings are marked Advanced and normally do not need to be changed.

Troubleshooting

My commits do not appear

1. Confirm the open workspace is a Git repository.
2. Confirm Git has your name or email configured for the repository.
3. Add any other author emails under CommitDiary: User › Emails.
4. Run CommitDiary: Show My Commits again.

Cloud sync does not start

1. Run CommitDiary: Setup Cloud Sync and replace the API key if needed.
2. Confirm CommitDiary: Sync › Enabled is on.
3. Check your internet connection.
4. Run CommitDiary: Sync Now.
5. Open View → Output and select CommitDiary for a local error summary.

Before sharing diagnostic output, remove private repository names, commit messages, file names, email addresses, and local paths.

The workspace is not trusted

CommitDiary limits cloud sync and custom path-matching rules in untrusted workspaces. Review the workspace contents and use VS Code's Workspace Trust controls only when you trust the project.

Help and product information

• Read the CommitDiary documentation
• Review current hosted plan availability
• Review frequently asked questions
• Report an extension problem on GitHub

Contributor setup, build, packaging, and release instructions are in DEVELOPMENT.md.

License

ISC