GitKraken has updated GitLens to add support for a browser-based editing experience in VS Code online. The Git extension for VS Code also adds support for worktrees and visual file history.

GitLens was created by Eric Amodio in 2016, and until 2021 was developed and maintained mainly by him. GitLens was acquired by GitKraken in 2021, and Amodio joined the company as Chief Technology Officer. GitLens is a free open-source Git extension for VS Code with more than 11 million active users and 71 million downloads in the past five years.

GitLens makes use of CodeLens and Git blame annotations to make code authorship clearer by showing the Git history of the code. Developers can use it to navigate and explore Git repositories, and use comparison commands to understand code more clearly.

The headline improvement to GitLens 12 is the ability to use it inside Visual Studio Code for the Web, so work directly in a browser with no install required. Describing the new support, GitKraken said:

"This feature is all about bringing the power of GitLens to the web, expanding the access of beloved features like inline blame, blame annotations, heatmaps, and history navigation. You can easily see a heatmap view comparing previous versions, even if you don’t have the repo cloned locally, or see a side-by-side file blame view to get to the bottom of the commit history for a single line."

The other additions to the new release may sound more worrying to existing users, as they are described as being for 'premium users'. At the moment to make use of the new premium features on public repos, all you have to do is to create a free account. The GitKraken team says that all-non premium features will continue to be free without an account, so you won’t lose access to any existing GitLens features.

The premium features are a Visual File History and support for Git Worktrees. The visual file history shows a graphical representation of a project's history, while worktrees add the ability to check out multiple branches at the same time in a single repository to make it easier to develop on, or test multiple branches, minimizing the overhead of switching between branches.

GitLens 12 is available now.

More Information

GitLens Website

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