Diff Tracker

Diff Tracker is a VS Code extension that records file changes and provides three review modes:

• Inline readonly diff document
• VS Code side-by-side diff
• Cursor-like WebView diff with floating Undo/Keep actions

Screenshots

💥 New in 0.4.0. Cursor like floating accept/reject buttons!

Cursor like WebView Unified	Cursor like WebView Split

Editor Inline View	Editor Inline View (hover effect)

Inline View 2	Side-by-side diff

Features

• Activity Bar Change Recording tree with file grouping
• Recording mode (start/stop) with workspace baseline snapshot
• Workspace-wide file watching (including external file changes)
• Inline readonly diff view with line and word-level highlights
• Side-by-side diff (Original ↔ Current) via built-in VS Code diff
• Cursor-like WebView diff (Split/Unified, Wrap, Expand, Keep All, Reject All)
• Block-wise actions: Undo/Keep per change block
• File-level actions: Revert file, Revert all files, Keep all changes in file
• Deleted-line badge, CodeLens actions, and hover details
• Settings panel + Watch Ignore editor (.gitignore style patterns)

Usage

1. Open Diff Tracker from the Activity Bar.
2. Click Start Recording.
3. Edit files in your workspace.
4. In Change Recording, click a changed file to open inline diff.
5. Use context menu or editor title buttons to open:
   • Inline Diff (active file)
   • Side-by-Side Diff
   • WebView Diff
6. In WebView Diff, use block-level Undo/Keep or file-level Keep All/Reject All.
7. Use Revert File / Revert All Changes as needed.
8. Stop recording when done.

How It Works

When recording starts, Diff Tracker:

1. Captures baseline snapshots for workspace files (batched)
2. Tracks file/document changes and rebuilds line/block diffs
3. Serves virtual inline/original documents
4. Keeps tree, decorations, CodeLens, and WebView in sync

Installation

From VSIX

1. Download the .vsix file
2. Open VS Code
3. Open Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X)
4. Click ... -> Install from VSIX...
5. Select the downloaded .vsix

Development

1. Clone the repository
2. Run npm install
3. Run npm run compile
4. Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host

Requirements

• VS Code ^1.80.0

Extension Settings

This extension provides the following settings:

Setting	Default	Description
diffTracker.showDeletedLinesBadge	true	Show a badge indicating deleted lines
diffTracker.showCodeLens	true	Show CodeLens actions (Revert/Keep) above change blocks
diffTracker.highlightAddedLines	true	Highlight added lines with green background
diffTracker.highlightModifiedLines	true	Highlight modified lines with blue background
diffTracker.highlightWordChanges	true	Highlight word-level changes within modified lines
diffTracker.watchExclude	[]	Additional watch ignore patterns (.gitignore style)

You can toggle display/highlight settings in the sidebar Settings panel, and edit watch ignore patterns via Edit Watch Ignores.

Known Issues

• Pure line-ending-style changes (CRLF/LF only) are currently treated as no logical content change.
• If you find a reproducible diff/render edge case, please open an issue with a minimal file sample.

Release Notes

0.1.0

• Activity Bar entry
• Recording mode for change tracking
• Inline diff highlighting
• Side-by-side diff
• Multi-file tracking with timestamps
• Revert file and revert all
• Clear diffs

0.2.0

• Change from LCS-based diff to Patience Diff algorithm for more intuitive diff display

0.3.0

• Add Partial Revert/Keep buttons, just like cursor
• Add go-to-original-file button in left panel

0.3.1

• Add file-level "Revert All" / "Keep All" buttons (CodeLens at file top)
• Add settings panel in sidebar to toggle display options
• Fix block-wise keep/revert affecting all blocks instead of just one
• Fix hover showing "unknown" for deleted empty lines

0.3.2

• Tiny bug fix

0.3.3

• Add word-level diff highlighting for modified lines
• Add "Highlight Word Changes" setting to toggle word-level highlighting

0.4.0

• Cursor-like WebView diff: floating Undo/Keep, unified view default, wrap/expand, and Keep All/Reject All in the toolbar
• Offline WebView rendering (bundled @pierre/diffs)
• Workspace-wide file watching (no longer limited to open files)
• New Watch Ignore panel with .gitignore support
• Faster tracking in large workspaces (debounced changes + optimized watchers)
• Smoother recording start on big repos (baseline builds in batches, large files skipped)

0.4.1

• Refactor diff pipeline to use a unified logical-line model
• Stabilize block grouping for large paste/delete and EOF scenarios
• Fix WebView empty-file rendering fallback that could hide block actions after full deletion
• Unify inline virtual URI mapping and refresh flow to prevent stale inline readonly content
• Improve mixed newline handling (LF/CRLF/CR) in Keep/Revert block operations

0.5.0

• Add Explorer file context action for Diff Tracker while recording, with the final label: Open with Diff Tracker
• Add configurable default open mode for changed files (WebView / Inline / Side-by-side / Original / Split Original+WebView)
• Add Open split view mode (left original file + right WebView diff)
• Add global recording toggle shortcut: Shift+Alt+D
• Improve changes tree to workspace-relative nested directory grouping
• Use VS Code native file icons in the changes tree
• Show changed-file count badge on the Diff Tracker activity icon
• Add and streamline global file actions in changes view workflows (Keep All / Revert All)
• Add Clear Diffs baseline reset to current workspace state
• lots of optimizations & fixes

0.5.1

• Improve recording controls in Change Recording with inline start entry, starting status, and title start/stop actions

0.5.2

• Fix watch ignore rules not refreshing in some recording states
• Reuse snapshot filtering in watcher updates to avoid tracking binary/oversized files
• Clear pre-seeded empty baseline for non-trackable created files in watcher flow

License

MIT