Last updated: November 2026
The Commit Graph is your starting point for working in GitLens. More than a visualization of repository history, it brings your repository state, working changes, branches, worktrees, and supported coding agent activity together in one connected workbench.
From here, you can understand what’s happening across your repository, coordinate parallel work, review and shape changes, and move work toward merge without rebuilding context across disconnected views and tools.
One Graph. Your development workflow, end to end.
GitLens 19.2 removed the separate Home view, and the Commit Graph now covers its workflows. Your GitKraken account and the setup status of AI, agents, and integrations appear in the account menu in the Commit Graph header. Agent sessions appear on the branch cards in the Graph sidebar, in the details panel for working changes, and on the Agent Kanban. Links that used to open the Home view now open the Commit Graph.
Welcome View
The Welcome view in the GitLens sidebar is the GitLens onboarding guide. Running GitLens: Get Started, or selecting Start the GitLens Welcome Guide in the GitLens walkthrough on the VS Code Get Started page, opens the Welcome view.
The Welcome view walks you through these steps:
- Getting started: Content that adapts to your subscription level, so you discover the features available on your plan.
- Commit Graph: Work with worktrees, agents, and your Git workflow from the Commit Graph.
- AI features: Compose commits, explain commits and branches, and create pull request titles and descriptions.
- Git Blame: Learn who changed a line, when, and why.
- Launchpad and Worktrees: Manage your pull requests, branches, and parallel work in one place.
- Kepler: Learn about Kepler, GitKraken’s Agentic Development Environment (ADE), with a Get Kepler button.
- GitKraken MCP: Install GitKraken MCP or connect it to more agents.
Select Get Started with the Commit Graph to open a second walkthrough about the Commit Graph. It covers monitoring agent sessions, parallel work, reviewing changes, composing commits, and comparing refs.
Start in the Commit Graph
When you open GitLens, the Commit Graph gives you a connected view of your repository and the work happening across it.
At a glance, you can understand:
- Your current branch, HEAD, upstream, and merge target
- Working changes across multiple worktrees
- Incoming and outgoing work
- Branches and commits across your repository
- Supported coding agent sessions and their status
- Work that may need review or attention
The Commit Graph gives you both the big picture and the context to decide what to do next. When you need to narrow your focus, you can focus the Graph on a single branch while keeping the broader repository within reach.
Manage Parallel Human and Agent Work
As development spreads across multiple branches, worktrees, and coding agents, keeping track of what is happening becomes more challenging. The Commit Graph keeps these parallel streams visible and connected to the Git context behind them.
Multi-worktree Working Changes shows uncommitted work across your worktrees, not just the one you currently have open. Agent Sessions connects supported coding agent activity to the branches and worktrees where that work is happening.
From the Commit Graph, you can:
- See work in progress across multiple worktrees
- Monitor supported coding agent sessions
- Identify sessions that need your attention
- Understand where agent work is happening
- Jump directly into working changes
- Resume work with the surrounding repository context intact
Agent Kanban
Agent Kanban provides a visual way to understand parallel agent work at a glance. Agent sessions are organized by status, including Needs Input, Working, Idle, and Inactive, so you can quickly identify what is progressing and where your attention is needed.
From the board, you can inspect agent work and jump into the associated session and working changes.
Resume Past Sessions
The Inactive column collects sessions that have been idle for more than an hour and past sessions, which are sessions that have ended. You can resume past sessions for Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, and OpenCode. A past session’s card offers one resume action for each place the session can open:
- Resume in Terminal: Opens a new integrated terminal in the session’s folder and resumes the session there.
- Resume in Claude Code Extension: Opens the session in the Claude Code extension. This action appears for Claude Code sessions when the extension is installed and the session’s folder is open in your workspace.
To remove a past session from the board, select Archive Session on its card. When a session can open in both places, the gitlens.agents.resumeTarget setting controls where resuming opens it. By default, GitLens asks the first time and lets you remember your choice.
Run Your Development Workflow from the Commit Graph
The Commit Graph is more than a place to see the work. It gives you the context and tools to move that work forward.
- Monitor
See human and agent work happening across branches, worktrees, and sessions, and quickly identify what needs your attention.
- Review
Review human or agent-generated changes with AI-powered Review. Surface meaningful findings, ask follow-up questions, and send feedback back to your coding agent when another pass is needed.
- Compose
Turn working changes into clean, logical commits with Commit Composer. Organize related changes, refine commits with AI assistance, and preview the result before writing it to your history.
- Compare
Compare branches, commits, revisions, and working changes to quickly understand exactly what changed before moving work forward.
- Rebase
Use AI-powered Rebase to automate tedious rebasing while staying in control of how your commit history is prepared.
- Resolve
When parallel work collides, use AI-assisted conflict resolution to understand and resolve conflicts while keeping the surrounding repository context in view.
Monitor parallel work. Review what changed. Shape it. Compare it. Rebase and resolve it. Get it ready to merge. All from the Commit Graph.
Change Branch Merge Target
You can set or reset the merge target for any branch using the Change Branch Merge Target command. This multi-step wizard lets you pick a repository, select a local branch, and choose a remote branch as its merge target. You can also reset the merge target if one was previously set.
How to access:
- From the Commit Graph: Use the merge target indicator in the branch header
- From the Command Palette:
GitLens: Change Branch Merge Target
When no merge target is set: GitLens uses a merge target it detected for the branch, or the base of the branch’s pull request. If a saved, detected, or pull request target names a branch that no longer exists locally, such as a stacked pull request’s base after it merged and was deleted, GitLens skips it and uses the next one available. With none of these, a branch created from another branch is measured against that branch until it’s merged, and any other branch against the default branch. GitLens finds the default branch from your local branches first: an upstream remote’s, then origin‘s. The default branch itself is measured against its own upstream. When the target is a local branch that is behind its remote, GitLens measures against whichever of the local branch and its upstream the branch split from more recently, so commits already on the remote aren’t counted.
Stay Oriented as Work Moves
The Commit Graph keeps important reference points visible as your repository changes.
HEAD, upstream, merge target, ahead and behind status, and incoming work indicators help you understand where you are, what has changed remotely, and where your work is headed.
For larger or more active repositories, you can focus the Commit Graph on a single branch, pin important branches, or use search to quickly find commits, authors, files, messages, and specific code changes.
Explore More GitLens Workflows
Continue exploring the workflows available from the Commit Graph:
- Agent Sessions to monitor supported coding agent activity
- Worktrees to manage parallel development
- Review to understand and validate changes
- Commit Composer to shape changes into logical commits
- Compare to understand differences across your work
- AI-powered Rebase to automate and clean up rebases
- AI-assisted Conflict Resolution to resolve overlapping work
- Visual History to visualize how files, branches, or your entire repository evolved over time
- Launchpad to prioritize pull requests and move work toward merge
Or follow a complete workflow from start to finish:
