Git Diff HEAD

A minimal VS Code extension that shows the equivalent of CLI git diff HEAD — your staged and unstaged edits (tracked files only) — in VS Code's native multi-file diff editor, with its built-in file-to-file and change-to-change navigation. A second command reaches further back with git diff HEAD~N.

It relies entirely on the built-in Git extension (vscode.git) and has no runtime dependencies.

Usage

• Git Diff HEAD: Show Diff (HEAD) — quick mode. Keybinding: Ctrl+Alt+D (macOS: Cmd+Alt+D). Compares HEAD against your working tree: your uncommitted staged + unstaged changes, just like git diff HEAD.
• Git Diff HEAD: Show Diff (HEAD~N…) — prompts for N and compares HEAD~N against your working tree (e.g. N=1 is git diff HEAD~), so it also includes the last N commits along with your uncommitted changes. Keybinding: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D (macOS: Cmd+Alt+Shift+D).

Untracked files are not shown, same as the CLI.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85 or newer (for the multi-file diff editor).
• The built-in Git extension enabled.

Development

Node is only needed to build. This repo compiles with plain tsc:

npm install
npm run compile

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host and try the command.

Packaging a local .vsix

Build an installable package with vsce:

npx @vscode/vsce package

This compiles and writes git-diff-head-<version>.vsix (the version comes from package.json). Install it from the Extensions panel → ⋯ → Install from VSIX…, or from the command line:

code --install-extension git-diff-head-<version>.vsix

License

MIT © Guillermo Marcus.