How to View Git History, Blame, and the Source Control Graph in VS Code

Understanding who changed what and why is a core part of working with Git. VS Code provides three built-in tools for exploring your repository history: the Source Control Graph, Git blame annotations, and the Timeline view.

If you are new to Git in VS Code, start with /vscode/how-to-stage-commit-push-and-pull-changes-in-vs-code to learn the basic commit workflow before diving into history exploration.

Source Control Graph

The Source Control Graph is a visual representation of your commit history and branch structure. Open it by selecting the graph icon in the Source Control view toolbar.

The graph shows:

• Your current branch highlighted
• The upstream branch and its commits
• Incoming commits (↓) from the remote that you can pull
• Outgoing commits (↑) that you have not pushed yet
• Other local and remote branches in relation to the current branch

Select any commit in the graph to see which files were changed in that commit. Select a file to open its diff. Right-click a commit to access actions like Checkout, Cherry-Pick, Compare with, Revert, or Add Commit to Chat (for Copilot context).

The graph toolbar lets you fetch, pull, push, and sync directly.

Git blame

Git blame shows you who last modified each line of a file, in which commit, and when. VS Code shows blame information in two places.

Editor decoration: Enable with the Git: Toggle Git Blame Editor Decoration command from the Command Palette. A faded annotation appears at the end of each line showing the author and commit date. Hover over it to see the full commit message, author details, and relative time.

Status Bar item: Enable with the Git: Toggle Git Blame Status Bar Item command. When your cursor is on a line, the Status Bar shows the author and commit summary. Select it to see the full commit details.

You can customize the blame message format with the git.blame.editorDecoration.template and git.blame.statusBarItem.template settings. For example, to show the commit subject and author:

json

{
  "git.blame.editorDecoration.template": "${subject}, ${authorName} (${authorDateAgo})"
}

Timeline view

The Timeline view shows the history for a specific file. Open it at the bottom of the File Explorer panel. With a file open in the editor, the Timeline lists:

• Git commits that touched that file, with author and message
• Local file saves (if enabled)

Select any entry to see the diff at that point in time. Use the filter to show only Git commits or include local history.

The Timeline view is useful when you want to trace how a single file evolved over time, or find when a particular change was introduced.

Compare commits and branches

You can compare any two points in your history directly from the Source Control Graph. Right-click a commit and select Compare with, then choose another commit, branch, or tag. VS Code opens a diff view showing all files that differ between the two points.

This is helpful when you want to see what changed between two releases, or understand the cumulative diff of a feature branch before merging.

Once you understand your repository's history, learn how to /vscode/how-to-review-pull-requests-and-github-issues-in-vs-code to collaborate with your team.