Edit Log

When you activate a file in the Explorer, Edit Log displays its daily editing history, including characters deleted, characters added, and the final character count. At the top of the view, you can see the name of the folder the file belongs to, along with the total character count of all files within that folder. When a tracked file or one of its parent folders is renamed or moved within VS Code, Edit Log automatically transfers the stored history and related tracking state to the new path. Export and import features are also available for manual backup and migration.

Key Features

• Real-time Character Counting: Accurately counts characters in the active document, excluding whitespace and newlines.
• Multibyte Character Support: Fully supports multibyte characters, such as Japanese (tested and verified), ensuring accurate tracking for global writers.
• Folder Statistics: View the combined character count for all files within the current folder.
• Customizable Aggregation: Toggle specific files on or off via a checklist to include or exclude them from the folder total. These settings are saved per workspace.
• Daily Edit History: A detailed table showing how much you've added or deleted each day, along with the total count.
• Rename-Aware History Preservation: File and folder renames or moves performed within VS Code automatically retain the associated edit history and folder inclusion settings. Renames made outside VS Code are not detected automatically.
• Native VS Code Integration: Built with official VS Code Codicons and theme-aware styling for a seamless look and feel.
• History Backup & Migration: Export and import your editing history as CSV files for manual backup, recovery, or migration between files.

How to Use

1. The EDIT LOG view is integrated into the Explorer in the Side Bar (the Files icon in the Activity Bar). If you cannot find it, right-click anywhere on the Explorer title bar and make sure EDIT LOG is checked.
2. Click the EDIT LOG title in the side bar to expand the view.
3. Open any text file to see its individual character count and the folder's total volume.
4. Click the Checklist Icon next to the folder name to select which files should be included in the total. This allows you to exclude specific files or logs from your project's aggregate count.
5. You can toggle all files on or off at once using the "Toggle All Files" checkbox.
6. Your writing progress is automatically recorded every time you save a file.
7. Export/Import History: Click the ellipsis (...) icon in the EDIT LOG view title bar to access the "Export File History" and "Import File History" commands.
8. File and Folder Renames: Rename or move files and folders from within VS Code to keep their Edit Log history and folder inclusion settings automatically linked to the new path. Rename or move operations performed outside VS Code are not detected automatically; use CSV export/import when manual recovery or migration is needed.

Record of text edits within files

File selection for total character count

Export and Import file edit history

Counting Logic

Edit Log calculates changes whenever a file is saved. It compares the newly saved text with the previous saved snapshot and uses a character-level Myers diff to identify deleted and added text independently. This means that replacements are recorded accurately—for example, replacing 5 characters with 8 characters is counted as 5 deleted and 8 added, rather than only a net increase of 3. Before running the diff, unchanged text at the beginning and end of the file is excluded from the comparison, reducing the amount of text that must be processed. This keeps the calculation efficient for typical writing workflows, including files saved frequently with VS Code's afterDelay auto-save setting. When identical deleted and added text appears within the same file, Edit Log treats it as moved text and excludes it from both Del and Add. This applies when the matching text appears in the same save operation, or in the immediately following save within a short matching period. Matches are handled one-to-one, so repeated identical strings are not removed from the count more times than they actually occur. All character totals are calculated with Intl.Segmenter using grapheme-cluster segmentation. This allows characters such as Japanese text, emoji, and combined Unicode characters to be counted as individual visible characters rather than UTF-16 code units. The following characters are excluded from Del, Add, and Total:

• Half-width and full-width spaces
• Tabs
• Newline characters