GitMaster

GitMaster 🎯

Investigate your Git history like a detective. Manage stashes like a pro.

🌐 Visit Website

Stop wrestling with Git commands. GitMaster brings powerful Git investigation tools and visual stash management (Shelves) directly into VS Code. Beautiful visualizations, author color-coding, and intuitive controls make understanding your codebase effortless.

Perfect for code investigators, reviewers, and developers who need to track down changes, understand history, and manage work-in-progress efficiently.

✨ Key Features

🔍 Git Investigation Tools

Inline Git Blame - Context Where You Need It See the history of any line of code directly in your editor.

• 👤 Who & When: See author and relative time inline as you type.
• 🖼️ Rich Tooltip: Hover to see the author's avatar, full message, and date.
• 🖱️ Interactive: Click to open detailed commit view and see the full diff.
• 🔄 Smart Diff: Works in comparison views to let you step back through history.
• 🏷️ Rename Aware: Tracks file history even across renames.

✨ Explain with AI - Understand Changes Instantly
Don't just see the code changes—understand why they happened.

• 🤖 One-Click Analysis: Click the sparkle icon in Commit Details.
• 📋 Auto-Copy: Copies the commit message and full diff to your clipboard.
• 🧠 Context-Rich: Prompts your AI assistant (Cursor, Copilot, etc.) to explain the "what" and "why" of the change.

File History - Track Every Change
Open any file and see its complete commit history with syntax-highlighted diffs.

• 🎨 Color-coded by author - spot patterns instantly
• 🔍 Click to view exact changes with syntax highlighting
• 🔎 Filter commits by message
• 📋 Copy commit IDs and file paths
• ⚡ Auto-updates when switching files

Git Graph - Visualize Your Repository
See your commit history as an interactive graph with branches, tags, and merge visualization.

• 🌳 Visual branch flow from top to bottom
• 🏷️ Branches and tags displayed on commits
• 🔍 Click any commit to inspect details
• 🎯 Zoom controls for large histories
• 📊 Shows merged branches and relationships

Git Log - Search & Investigate
Repository timeline with powerful filtering and operations.

• 🔎 Filter commits by message across entire history
• 🎨 Author color-coding
• 📜 Load more commits on demand (50 at a time)
• 🍒 Cherry-pick to current branch
• 🔄 Revert in new branch (safe)
• 🌿 Create branches from any commit

Git Operations (Reflog) - Time Travel
Every action you've taken, visualized with icons. Jump to any point in history.

• 📝 Commits • 🌿 Checkouts • ☁️ Pulls • 🔀 Merges • 📚 Rebases • ❌ Resets

🏗️ Git Worktrees - Multi-Context Workflow

Work on multiple branches simultaneously without switching contexts or stashing.

• 📂 Manage Worktrees - View, create, and remove worktrees visually
• 🚀 Quick Switch - Open any worktree in a new window with one click
• 🛡️ Safe Management - Prevents accidental deletion of main or active worktrees
• 🧹 Auto-Prune - Clean up stale worktree entries easily

📦 Shelves - WebStorm-Style Stash Management

Save your WIP changes with meaningful names. No more "stash@{0}" confusion.

• ✍️ Named stashes - "WIP: login form" beats "stash@{0}"
• 👁️ Preview changes - see diffs before applying
• 📊 File counts - know what's in each shelf
• ⚠️ Smart warnings - prevents data loss
• 🗂️ Include untracked files - stash everything
• 🔄 Apply or Pop - your choice

🌿 Branch Management

Work efficiently with team repositories. Focus on what matters.

• 👤 My Branches filter - hide team noise
• 🔍 Filter by author - track specific developers
• 📌 Pin important branches - persistent across sessions
• 🎨 Color-coded - same author, same color
• ☁️ Remote branch checkout - one click
• ➕ Create & delete visually
• 📅 Sorted by activity - recent first

⚙️ Configuration

You can customize GitMaster in VS Code Settings (Cmd+',' or Ctrl+','). Search for "GitMaster" to see all available options.

Inline Git Blame

• gitmaster.blame.enabled (default: true)
  Toggle inline Git blame annotations on/off.

Git Operations View

• gitmaster.views.showGitOperations (default: true)
  Toggle the Git Operations (Reflog) view in the sidebar.

🤝 MCP (Cursor integration)

GitMaster can expose a local MCP server (running inside the extension host) so Cursor can call GitMaster tools.

⚠️ MCP is disabled by default. You must enable it first in settings.

How to enable MCP:

1. Open VS Code Settings (Cmd+, or Ctrl+,)
2. Search for gitmaster.mcp.enabled
3. Check the box to enable MCP
4. Run the VS Code command GitMaster: Install MCP in Cursor to configure Cursor

Settings:

• gitmaster.mcp.enabled (default: false) - Enable the MCP server
• gitmaster.mcp.port (default: 8765) - Port for the MCP server

Then in Cursor, use GitMaster MCP tools like Commit Explain, Show Git Graph, Shelves, File Experts, and File History.

🎨 Why GitMaster?

🔍 Built for Code Investigation
Find when bugs were introduced, who changed what, and why. Filter, search, and visualize your way to answers.

📦 WebStorm-Style Shelves
Named stashes that actually make sense. Save WIP work with context, not cryptic stash@{0} references.

🌈 Author Color-Coding
Same author = same color everywhere. Spot patterns across File History, Branches, Git Log, and Graph instantly.

🖱️ Visual & Interactive
Click to explore. Right-click for operations. No terminal commands to memorize.

🛡️ Safe by Default
Warns before destructive actions. Detects conflicts. Validates inputs. Shows what will happen.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Install GitMaster from the Extensions panel
2. Open any Git repository
3. Click the Git Master icon in the sidebar (Activity Bar)
4. Explore! All your Git data is now visual and interactive

💡 Tip: No configuration needed. GitMaster works out of the box with any Git repository.

📖 Investigation Workflows

🔍 "When did this bug get introduced?"

1. Open the buggy file → File History
2. Filter commits by keywords (e.g., "auth")
3. Click commits to see syntax-highlighted diffs
4. New: Click "✨ Explain with AI" to get an instant summary of complex changes.
5. Find the culprit commit

🌳 "How did these branches merge?"

1. Git Log → Click Git Graph icon
2. See visual branch flow and merge points
3. Click any commit to inspect details
4. Zoom in/out for clarity

🕵️ "Who worked on authentication?"

1. Branches → Filter by author
2. Or Git Log → Filter by "auth"
3. See all related commits color-coded

📦 "Save WIP to investigate a bug"

1. Shelves → Click +
2. Name it "WIP: feature-x"
3. Investigate and fix the bug
4. Pop your shelf to resume work

🍒 "Apply this fix to another branch"

1. Find commit in Git Log or Graph
2. Right-click → Cherry-pick
3. Auto-conflict detection guides you

🏗️ "Work on a hotfix while in the middle of a feature"

1. Worktrees → Click +
2. Name folder "hotfix-login" and branch "hotfix/login-bug"
3. Click the folder icon to open a new window
4. Fix bug in isolation without touching your current work
5. Close window and remove worktree when done

💻 System Requirements

• Git installed and in your PATH
• VS Code 1.85.0 or newer
• Any Git repository

That's it! GitMaster works with any Git repo - no additional setup required.

❓ FAQ

Q: How is this different from Git Graph extensions?
A: GitMaster combines investigation tools (file history, filtering, author tracking), visual graph, AND WebStorm-style shelves in one extension. It's designed for investigating code, not just viewing commits.

Q: Does it work with large repositories?
A: Yes! Load-more functionality (50 commits at a time) and filtering keep it fast even with thousands of commits.

Q: Will this work with GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket/Azure DevOps?
A: Yes! Works with any Git repository, regardless of hosting.

Q: Does it replace VS Code's built-in Git?
A: No, it complements it. Use GitMaster for investigation and history, use built-in Git for staging/committing.

Q: What are "Shelves"?
A: Named stashes, like WebStorm/IntelliJ. Much better than "stash@{0}" - you can name them "WIP: login form" or "trying-new-approach".

Q: I reset my branch and lost my changes. Can GitMaster help me recover them?
A: Yes! If you committed your changes before resetting:

1. Open Git Operations (reflog) - it shows every commit you've made, even "lost" ones
2. Scroll through and click commits to see changes in the Commit Details section
3. Once you find your lost commit, right-click → Create Branch from Commit
4. Optional: Use Interactive Rebase section to rebase your recovered branch onto master

Git never truly deletes committed changes - reflog keeps them for ~90 days. GitMaster makes finding and recovering them visual and easy.

🆚 GitMaster vs. Command Line

Feature	Command Line	GitMaster
Investigate file history	git log --follow <file> + git show	Click file → see history with syntax diffs
Filter commit history	git log --grep="..."	Type in filter box
Visualize branch graph	git log --graph --all	Interactive graph with zoom & click
Named stashes	git stash push -m "name"	Click + → type name
Filter branches by author	git branch -a | grep ... + scripting	Click 👤 icon
View reflog	git reflog → parse text	Timeline with icons & operations
Manage worktrees	git worktree list/add/remove	Visual list, one-click open & create

GitMaster makes Git investigation visual, fast, and safe.

🐛 Found a Bug?

Open an issue with: what you tried, what happened, VS Code version, Git version.

🌟 Love GitMaster?

⭐ Star on GitHub • ✍️ Leave a review • 📢 Tell your team

📝 License

MIT License - Free to use in personal and commercial projects.

---

Made with ❤️ for code investigators and Git power users

Because understanding your codebase shouldn't require a terminal degree

Report Bug • Request Feature • 🌐 Website