VS Code CLI Tools

Tools for integrating with VS Code, primarily for viewing diffs.

Requirements

VS Code must be installed with the code CLI available in PATH.

Opening a Diff

Compare two files side by side in VS Code:

code -d <file1> <file2>

Git Diffs in VS Code

Simple Approach (no config needed)

Extract the old version to a temp file, then diff:

Compare with previous commit

git show HEAD~1:path/to/file > /tmp/old && code -d /tmp/old path/to/file

Compare with specific commit

git show abc123:path/to/file > /tmp/old && code -d /tmp/old path/to/file

Compare staged version with working tree

git show :path/to/file > /tmp/staged && code -d /tmp/staged path/to/file

Gotchas

• File must exist and have changes between the compared revisions

• Use git log --oneline -5 -- path/to/file to verify file has history before diffing

When to Use

• Showing the user what changed in a file

• Comparing two versions of code

• Reviewing git changes visually