Forks [Beta]

Standardized Git Branches from the Status Bar

Tired of typing branch names by hand or forgetting your team’s conventions? Forks pins a branch creator to your status bar—pick a type, enter a title, and get a clean branch name like feature/main/new-ui-for-profile.

What is Forks?

Forks is a VS Code extension that creates structured git branches from a guided flow. Click Forks in the status bar, choose a type (e.g. feature, bug, hotfix), type a short title, and Forks slugifies it and runs git checkout -b type/baseBranch/slug for you.

Why Use Forks?

• Consistent naming: Enforces a type/baseBranch/slug format so branches look the same across the team
• Smart slugification: Turns titles like New UI for "User Profile"! into new-ui-for-user-profile
• Context-aware: Uses your current branch as the base (e.g. feature/main/... when you’re on main)
• Zero-clutter UI: One status bar item; the icon only appears when the workspace has a git repo
• Customizable types: Add your own prefixes (e.g. refactor, docs, chore) in settings
• Character limit: Optional max length for the slug so branch names stay readable (e.g. under 100 chars)

Getting Started

Installation

1. Open VS Code or Cursor
2. Go to the Extensions view
3. Search for Forks
4. Click Install

First Steps

1. Open a folder that is a git repository (Forks only shows its status bar icon when a .git folder exists)
2. Click the Forks icon in the status bar (or run Forks: Create structured branch from the Command Palette)
3. Pick a branch type (e.g. feature, bug, hotfix—or add more in settings)
4. Enter a title (e.g. New UI for User Profile page) and confirm—Forks creates and checks out the new branch

Commands

• Forks: Create structured branch – Open the branch-creation flow (type → title → git checkout -b)

How It Works

Branch format

Branches are created as:

<type>/<baseBranch>/<slug>

Example: on main, choosing feature and title New UI for "User Profile" Page! produces:

feature/main/new-ui-for-user-profile-page

Settings

Configure Forks under the Forks section in settings (forks.*):

• forks.types – Branch type prefixes in the picker (default: feature, bug, hotfix)
• forks.maxSlugLength – Max length for the slug part (default: 80)
• forks.statusBarLabel – Status bar text (default: $(git-branch) forks; Codicons supported)

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Support the Project

If Forks helps your workflow, you can support the project (no pressure):

Need Help?

• Docs: See docs/README.md for overview, docs/architecture.md for data flow, and docs/configuration.md for settings
• Issues: Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on GitHub
• Repository: github.com/iNandi/forks

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Made with ❤️ by Gobinda Nandi