History map#

sundgren draws where branches stand against a base branch as a vertical map, newest on top, routed like a circuit board. This is that panel, on a made-up repository:

In VS Code#

Run sundgren: Show History from the Command Palette, or from the button in the Source Control title bar, and pick a base (the same default as Containment). From the Containment panel, History opens it with Containment’s base, showing the branches most like its target; the History button under an open branch also pins that branch.

  • The base is the reference line. Every other lane leaves it where its branch forked, and rejoins it where it was merged. A remote lane holds only the commits its local branch doesn’t have.

  • Each commit is a row: the time on the axis at the left (the day where one starts), the graph, the branch labels, the short hash, the subject and the author, in fixed columns. Hover a row for the whole commit message. A label gives the branch’s ahead (↑) and behind (↓) counts against the base, local or remote (= origin when the remote is at the same commit), and the same badges as Containment.

  • Show picks the branches: local first, recent activity, mine (commits by your user.email), or like a branch (most contained in it, as in Containment). The first 12 are shown; Branches lists them all in that order: tick or untick any, and the map follows. All, First 12, Local and Remote tick a whole group (or untick it, if it is all ticked); Reset goes back to the first 12.

  • Authors lists who wrote the commits on the page, by email. Untick someone and their commits shrink to thin rows, the lines still running through them.

  • Dates picks the days: the last 7, 30 or 90, or click a first and a last day in the calendar (a dot marks days with commits on the page). Any time goes back to the newest commits.

  • A run of commits on one lane with nothing else happening is folded into one row; click ×N to unfold it, and again to fold it.

  • Load older at the bottom reads more of the base’s history (sundgren.historyPage commits, 50 by default) and keeps the scroll position.

  • Each branch has its own colour (12, then dotted). Remote lanes are thinner and dashed. Protected branches (the sundgren.protected setting, default main and master) are drawn in the text colour. Merged branches are faded.

  • A lane broken around a horizontal line passes under it, it doesn’t join it. A pad at the bottom: the lane goes on in older history; the line under the map says how many commits.

  • The legend under the map lists the markings in use.

From the command line#

The extension runs the sundgren binary bundled with it:

$ sundgren graph --repo . --base main --show local --format text

--format json prints a sundgren.graph/3 document (schema): the lanes, the commits, the folds, and the drawing as a grid of cells, one character each, which the panel draws as is.