name: vscode
description: VS Code integration for viewing diffs and comparing files. Use when showing file differences to the user.

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