GitLens Documentation

Using the GitLens Sidebar

Last updated: July 2025

GitLens provides multiple sidebars that extend the functionality of Visual Studio Code, making it easier to navigate and understand your Git repositories. These include:

  • GitLens Inspect — View blame annotations, code lenses, and commit details.
  • GitLens — Access features like commit history, branches, and remotes.
  • Source Control — Integrates with GitLens to enhance the built-in source control panel.

Features marked with PRO require a trial or paid plan for use on privately hosted repos
Features marked with PREVIEW require a GitKraken Account, with access level based on your plan, e.g. Community, Pro, etc


Use the GitLens Sidebars

GitLens offers three sidebars in Visual Studio Code that enhance Git workflows with rich visualizations, insights, and collaboration tools.

GitLens Inspect Sidebar

The GitLens Inspect sidebar provides contextual information about your current file, line, or repository activity. Use it to dive into commit details, history, and comparisons.

This sidebar includes:

  • Commit Details
  • Overview
  • Line History
  • File History
  • Visual File History
  • Search & Compare
GitLens Inspect sidebar overview

GitLens Sidebar

The GitLens sidebar centralizes collaboration features and user tools, including GitKraken Workspaces and account settings.

This sidebar includes:

  • Home View
  • GitKraken Workspaces
  • GitKraken Account
  • Cloud Patches PRO
  • Launchpad PRO
GitLens sidebar showing Home view

Home View Details

The Home View provides visibility into current tasks and recent activity. To get the most out of this view, connect your Git provider and issue integrations.

Sections include:

  • REPOSITORY — Displays the active repository and branch, sync status, and actions for fetch/push/pull. Shows linked PRs or issues when available, or offers to start a new PR.
  • LAUNCHPAD — Highlights pull requests needing review, those blocked, or ready to merge. Start new branches or worktrees tied to issues.
  • RECENT — Quickly access recent branches, PRs, and worktrees.

Source Control Sidebar

The Source Control sidebar enhances VS Code’s native Git interface with additional GitLens-powered views.

This sidebar includes:

  • Commits
  • Branches
  • Remotes
  • Stashes
  • Tags
  • Worktrees
  • Contributors
  • Repositories
GitLens Source Control sidebar with enhanced Git views

Views can be detached from the sidebar and moved or reattached using the ellipsis icon menu.

Detaching GitLens views from the Source Control sidebar

Move Views Between Sidebars

You can move any GitLens view between the GitLens Inspect, GitLens, and Source Control sidebars. To move a view, simply drag and drop it to the desired sidebar.

Drag and drop GitLens views to reposition them between sidebars

To restore the default layout, open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P) and run:

View: Reset View Locations


Commits View

GitLens Commits view

A customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git commits.

The Commits view displays all commits on the current branch. It also provides:

  • A toggle to show all commits or only your own
  • A toggle to switch file layout: list, tree, or auto
  • A branch comparison tool — compare the current branch (or working tree) with a selected branch, tag, or ref
    • Behind — shows commits missing from the current branch
    • Ahead — shows commits present on the current branch but not on the selected reference
  • Branch status with upstream info:
    • Publish — option to publish if not yet pushed
    • Up to date — when synced with remote
    • Changes to pull — if commits are available on the remote
    • Changes to push — if there are local unpublished commits
    • Merging or rebasing — indicates in-progress merge or rebase actions and lists conflicted files
GitLens Commits view with merge in progress
GitLens Commits view with rebase in progress
  • Associated pull request — displays if a pull request is linked to the current branch

GitLens Inspect

The GitLens Inspect sidebar focuses on providing contextual insights related to the code you’re working on. It includes two tabs: Commit Details and Overview.

To open GitLens Inspect, launch the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P) and run:

GitLens: Show Inspect View

Commit Details

The Commit Details tab updates as you move your cursor through the file or select a commit in the Commit Graph. It shows information such as commit author, ID, modified files, and autolinks.

Commit details in GitLens Inspect view

Overview

The Overview tab helps you stage or unstage changes, open files to view modifications, and access associated pull requests. You can also suggest changes or view Code Suggestions when working on a pull request.

GitLens Inspect view with code overview and pull request context

Repositories View

GitLens Repositories view

A hidden by default, customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git repositories.

The Repositories view lists all open Git repositories. It includes:

  • A toggle to auto-refresh repository changes
  • A toggle to switch file layout: list, tree, or auto
  • Upstream status indicators:
    • No dot — branch unpublished or no changes
    • Green dot — commits ahead of upstream
    • Red dot — commits behind upstream
    • Yellow dot — ahead and behind
  • A branch comparison tool — compare the current branch with a selected branch, tag, or ref:
    • Behind — commits missing from current branch
    • Ahead — commits present in current branch only
  • Optionally show:
    • Changed files in the working tree
    • Current branch status with upstream (e.g., publish, up to date, changes to pull or push)
    • Associated pull request
    • Commit history (like the Commits view)
    • Local branches (like the Branches view)
    • Remotes and branches (like the Remotes view)
    • Stashes, tags, and contributors
    • Incoming Activity (experimental) — recent merge and pull events

File History View

GitLens File History view

A customizable view to visualize, navigate, and explore the revision history of the current file or selected lines.

The File History view lists all commits that modified the current file on the active branch. It includes:

  • A toggle to pin (pause) automatic tracking of the current editor
  • A toggle to switch between file and line history
  • The ability to change the base branch or reference for history
  • (File history only) A toggle to follow renames
  • (File history only) A toggle to show commits from all branches
  • Merge conflict status (if applicable):
    • Merge Changes — compare base and incoming changes to aid in resolving conflicts
File History view showing a merge conflict

Line History View

GitLens Line History view

A hidden by default, customizable view to visualize, navigate, and explore the revision history of the selected lines of the current file.

The Line History view lists all commits that modified the selected lines. It provides:

  • A toggle to pin (pause) automatic tracking of the current editor
  • The ability to change the base branch or reference
  • Merge conflict status (if applicable):
    • Merge Changes — compare base and incoming changes to aid in resolving conflicts

Branches View

GitLens Branches view

A customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git branches.

The Branches view lists all local branches and includes:

  • A toggle to switch between list or tree layout
  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto
  • Upstream status icons:
    • No dot — branch unpublished or no changes
    • Green dot — ahead of upstream
    • Red dot — behind upstream
    • Yellow dot — ahead and behind
  • Status indicators:
    • — current branch
    • (green) — unpushed changes
    • (red) — unpulled changes
    • ▼▲ (yellow) — diverged from upstream
    • ▲+ (green) — unpublished branch
    • ! (dark red) — missing upstream branch
  • A comparison tool — compare a branch with another branch, tag, or ref:
    • Behind — commits missing from the branch
    • Ahead — commits present on the branch only
    • Number of files changed — across all comparison points
  • Branch status:
    • Publish — shown for unpublished branches
    • Changes to push — unpublished commits
    • Changes to pull — incoming commits
  • Associated pull request — shown when linked to a branch

Remotes View

GitLens Remotes view

A customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git remotes and remote branches.

The Remotes view lists all remotes and their remote branches. It includes:

  • A toggle to switch between list or tree layout for branches
  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto
  • A toggle to connect to supported remote providers for enhanced integration with pull requests, issues, avatars, and more

Stashes View

GitLens Stashes view

A customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git stashes.

The Stashes view lists all stashes and includes:

  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto

Tags View

GitLens Tags view

A customizable view to visualize, explore, and manage Git tags.

The Tags view lists all tags and includes:

  • A toggle to switch tag layout: list or tree
  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto

Launchpad View PRO

GitLens Launchpad view (experimental)

The Launchpad view provides an always-visible panel for pull request activity. You can view pull request details in a tree format and take action directly from the sidebar.

To enable this experimental feature, either run the Show Launchpad View command or set gitlens.views.launchpad.enabled to true in your settings file.


Workspaces

Workspaces offer a convenient way to group and manage multiple repositories for easy access. Whether working solo or as part of a team, Workspaces help streamline your development process. You can include local repositories or GitKraken Workspaces—cloud-hosted repositories or those managed through GitKraken services.

To access Workspaces, open the GitLens Home menu and find them in the lower-left panel. Alternatively, search “Workspaces” via the Command Palette.

Note: Using cloud Workspaces requires a GitKraken account. Sharing cloud Workspaces requires a trial or paid subscription.

GitLens Workspaces in the sidebar

Creating a Workspace

Click the + icon next to GitKraken Workspaces to create a new Workspace. Enter a name and description, and optionally connect a provider.

Create a GitLens Workspace

Adding Repositories

Add repositories to your Workspace using the + icon under the Workspace tab. Click the Refresh icon to sync updates.

Add a repository to a Workspace

Locating Repositories

To find a repository’s location on disk, click the Locate Repositories (pin icon). Select a parent folder, and GitLens will scan it for repositories.

Locate a repo in a Workspace

Opening Repositories

To open a repository, click the Open Repository in New Window icon.

Pro Tip: Hold Alt/Option while clicking to open in the current window.

Open Workspace repository in VS Code

Removing Repositories

Right-click a repository and choose Remove repository from Workspace to remove it.

Remove repository from Workspace

Converting to Cloud Workspaces

To convert a local Workspace, click Convert to Cloud Workspace, add a name and description, and save. Your Workspace will be available across GitKraken tools.

Convert local Workspace to GitKraken Cloud

Workspace Indicators and Colors

Workspace status indicators use symbols and colors, such as a green O for the currently open Workspace.

GitLens Workspace status indicators

Workspace Linking

You can link a GitKraken Workspace to a VS Code workspace.

Create a VS Code Workspace from GitKraken

Linked VS Code workspaces can be opened from their cloud counterpart using Open VS Code Workspace in New Window (hold Alt to open in the current window).

When you add repositories to a GitKraken Workspace, they can be auto-added to its linked VS Code workspace. You choose the auto-add behavior when creating the workspace and can modify it later via the Change Linked Workspace Auto-Add Behavior command.

Link repositories to VS Code workspace

To manually add repositories, use the Add Repositories from Linked Workspace command.


Worktrees View

GitLens Worktrees view

A customizable view to create, view, and manage Git worktrees. Worktrees allow you to check out multiple branches at once within the same repository—useful for parallel development or testing workflows without switching branches.


Contributors View

GitLens Contributors view

A hidden by default, customizable view to explore repository contributors.

The Contributors view lists all contributors and includes:

  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto

Search & Compare View

GitLens Search and Compare view

A hidden by default, customizable view to search commit history or compare branches, tags, commits, and more.

The Search & Compare view displays pinnable results from search or comparison operations. It includes:

  • A toggle to retain previous results
  • A toggle to change file layout: list, tree, or auto

Pinnable Search

Search commits by message, author, file, ID, or patch using:

  • Search Commits (gitlens.showCommitSearch):
    • <message> — message match
    • @<pattern> — author match
    • #<sha> — commit SHA
    • :<path/glob> — filename pattern
    • ~<pattern> — patch content match
  • Show File History (gitlens.showQuickFileHistory)
  • Show Commit (gitlens.showQuickCommitDetails)

Pinnable Comparison

Compare any two references:

  • Behind — commits missing from the target branch
  • Ahead — commits unique to the target branch
  • Number of files changed — file diffs between the two references

Comparison commands include:

  • gitlens.views.compareWithUpstream
  • gitlens.views.compareWithWorking
  • gitlens.views.compareWithHead
  • gitlens.views.compareWithSelected
  • gitlens.views.compareAncestryWithWorking

You can use checkboxes next to files to track review progress.

Have feedback about this article? Did we miss something? Let us know!
On this page