Git Retrace

Retrace the path. See how greatness grew.

A VSCode sidebar commit graph with ascending-by-default ordering — the earliest commit on top, newest at the bottom. Retrace how a project grew, one step at a time.

Why this fork

Built-in VSCode graph and Git Graph both default to newest-first ordering, which is great when you're tracking the latest changes — but it gets in the way when you want to read a project's history chronologically: studying an open-source codebase commit by commit, retracing how a feature was built up, or onboarding to an unfamiliar repo.

This fork ships an ascending-by-default view (oldest commit on top) plus a one-click toggle, so you can flip between "what changed recently" and "how did we get here" without leaving the sidebar. Everything else stays close to the native graph experience.

Features

• Ascending or descending sort, toggleable from the view title bar — earliest-first by default
• Multi-lane swimlane graph with branch curves
• Click a commit to inline-expand the detail panel (no extra tab)
• File tree / list toggle for the changed-files view
• Refs chips, stats, message filter, working-tree row
• Direct file-open for added / deleted files (no one-sided diff confusion)
• Merge commits show files via diff-tree against the first parent

Install

VSCode

Search "Git Retrace" in the Extensions view, or:

ext install semsevens.git-retrace

Cursor / VSCodium / OpenVSX-based editors

Same command (ext install semsevens.git-retrace) — these editors resolve against Open VSX, where this extension is also published.

From a .vsix (offline / pinned version)

1. Download the desired .vsix from the Releases page
2. Command Palette → Extensions: Install from VSIX... → pick the file

From source

git clone https://github.com/semsevens/git-retrace.git
cd git-retrace
npm install
npm run compile
npx vsce package
code --install-extension git-retrace-*.vsix

Usage

Open the Source Control view in the sidebar. The graph appears as Git Retrace below the built-in changes panel.

• Toggle sort: click the swap-arrows icon in the view title bar
• Tree / list view: click the tree / list icon in the view title bar
• Refresh: click the refresh icon
• Filter: type in the search box at the top of the panel

Maintainer notes

Release process and known publishing landmines (Open VSX agreement, Microsoft Marketplace setup obstacles, etc.) are documented in docs/PUBLISHING.md.

Credits

Icon: Way to go icons created by hamzaafzalrao - Flaticon

License

MIT