Regression: GitLens creates a .gk folder in the home dir.

[lgarron]

Description

1. Use VS Code as normal, with GitLens installed.

I am now seeing a .gk folder in my home directory. I thought it might have been a one-off fluke, but it's now happened a second time within a week.

• The source code here actually looks pretty clean. I don't see how it could be hitting the ~/.gk fallback unless an assumption is breaking (e.g. if getPlatform() that might explain it).
  • This file has not changed in 8 months, but I have not yet checked if this matches the code shipped in the extension.
• I tried checking the logs, and there is nothing useful in the logs for the VS Code run where these files were created — particularly around the timestamp in question.
  • I've enabled debug logging now, in case this happens again.

GitLens Version

17.5.1

VS Code Version

Version: 1.104.1
Commit: 0f0d87fa9e96c856c5212fc86db137ac0d783365
Date: 2025-09-17T23:36:24.973Z (1 wk ago)
Electron: 37.3.1
ElectronBuildId: 12404162
Chromium: 138.0.7204.235
Node.js: 22.18.0
V8: 13.8.258.31-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.0.0

Git Version

git version 2.51.0

Logs, Screenshots, Screen Captures, etc

2025-09-23:

2025-09-25

Columns are: Name, Date Created, Date Modified, Size, Kind

[lgarron]

Okay, I restarted VS Code and the folders immediately came back. Logs show only one line that looks relevant to me:

[2025-09-26 06:41:29.386] [           e6] LocalSharedGkStorageLocationProvider.load Using legacy shared GK path: /Users/lgarron/.gk

So it's hitting this line:

vscode-gitlens/src/env/node/gk/localSharedGkStorageLocationProvider.ts

Line 57 in b204f48

Logger.log(scope, `Using legacy shared GK path: ${legacySharedGKPath}`);

I'm going to try to hack more logging into the extension to trace the calculation failure.

EDIT: I tried to modify the extension code to log more about what happened, but that didn't work.

[MrAtheist]

i just want to add that the plugin spawns a bunch of gk processes and that crashed my vscode, and eventually the entire mac...

i'll report back after i make sure that nothing suspicious is going on with my mac...

[yenmangu]

I have noticed today, 29-09-25, my Lulu firewall is detecting a process named 'gk' trying to connect to an external server.

args: install
path: /Users/***/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/eamodio.gitlens/gk

Searching 'GitLens gk' brought me here

[yenmangu]

i just want to add that the plugin spawns a bunch of gk processes and that crashed my vscode, and eventually the entire mac...

i'll report back after i make sure that nothing suspicious is going on with my mac...

Did you find anything? Im also running on a mac.

[eamodio]

I've tracked down the culprit here -- it is actually being caused by our MCP that is bundled with GitLens. Which is the gk binary you are seeing. We are working on addressing this in the MCP asap and will push an update as soon as we can.

I will post back once its resolved.

[lgarron]

I've tracked down the culprit here -- it is actually being caused by our MCP that is bundled with GitLens. Which is the gk binary you are seeing. We are working on addressing this in the MCP asap and will push an update as soon as we can.

Thanks, glad to hear it!

As someone who stays away from LLMs for coding, it would certainly be nice to have a simple way to disable all AI features so that we can't get bitten by bugs outside the git functionality we're using GitLens for.

[eamodio]

OK, the new MCP release is out so to make sure everything updates properly follow these steps:

• Close all instances of VS Code (and all other VS Code forks)
• Open a single instance of VS Code (or your preferred fork)
• Let it settle for like a minute (or forcibly reinstall the MCP via GitLens: Reinstall GitKraken MCP Server command in the palette`)
• Close all instances of VS Code (and all other VS Code forks)
• Delete the unwanted .gk folder
• Restart VS Code or whatever you use

From then on it should not create the .gk folder

@lgarron you can set gitlens.ai.enabled to false