vim-git-changes

A VSCode-style git Source Control panel for Vim 9 — written entirely in Vim9script with no external dependencies beyond git itself.

┌─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  COMMIT MESSAGE     │                                      │
│  (write here…)      │         diff view                    │
│  <CR>/<C-s> commit  │         (filetype=diff)              │
├─────────────────────┤                                      │
│  GIT CHANGES        │                                      │
│  ────────────────── │                                      │
│  STAGED (1)         │                                      │
│  ✓ M  src/foo.js    │                                      │
│                     │                                      │
│  CHANGES (2)        │                                      │
│  · M  src/bar.js    │                                      │
│  · ?  src/new.js    │                                      │
│  ────────────────── │                                      │
│  s stage  S stg all │                                      │
│  u unstage  <Tab>   │                                      │
└─────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘

Requirements

• Vim 9.0+ (Vim9script — Neovim is not supported)
• git in $PATH
• (optional) gh CLI authenticated with gh auth login, for AI commit messages
• (optional) curl for the Copilot API call

Installation

Native packages (recommended):

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start
git clone https://github.com/yourname/vim-git-changes \
    ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/vim-git-changes
vim -u NONE -c 'helptags ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/vim-git-changes/doc' -c q

vim-plug:

Plug 'yourname/vim-git-changes'

After installation run :helptags ALL once so :help git-changes works.

Usage

Toggle the panel from any buffer inside a git repo:

:GitChanges
" or the default mapping:
<leader>gs

The sidebar opens on the left with the commit message area on top and the file list below. The diff view appears in your main editing area when you open a file.

---

Commit panel (top of sidebar)

Write your commit message here. Lines starting with # are stripped before committing, matching the COMMIT_EDITMSG convention.

Key	Mode	Action
<CR>	normal	Commit staged changes
<C-s>	normal / insert	Commit staged changes
<C-p>	normal / insert	Ask Copilot to draft the message
<Tab> / q	normal	Go back to the file list

Auto-stage: if nothing is staged when you commit, all changes are staged automatically (git add -A) before the commit runs. You can also stage selectively first using S or s in the file list.

---

File list panel (bottom of sidebar)

Key	Action
<CR> / double-click	Open diff for the file under the cursor
s	Stage file under cursor (git add)
S	Stage all changed files (git add -A)
u	Unstage file under cursor (git restore --staged)
U	Unstage all staged files
<Tab> / cc	Jump to the commit message panel
r	Refresh the list
q	Close the panel
?	Print keybinding reference

---

GitHub Copilot commit messages

<C-p> in the commit panel:

1. Collects git diff --staged (falls back to git diff if nothing is staged)
2. Gets your GitHub auth token via gh auth token
3. Sends the diff (first 300 lines) to api.githubcopilot.com/chat/completions
4. Pastes the suggested message into the commit buffer

Requirements: gh auth login + an active GitHub Copilot subscription.

If it fails, the exact error from gh or the Copilot API is echoed so you can see what went wrong.

---

Configuration

" sidebar width in columns (default 42)
let g:git_changes_width = 50

" commit panel height in lines (default 8)
let g:git_changes_commit_height = 10

Custom toggle mapping

" suppress the default <leader>gs and use your own:
nmap <leader>gc <Plug>(GitChangesToggle)

Colour overrides

The file list uses the gitchangesfiles filetype. Override any highlight group:

highlight GitChangesStagedFile   guifg=#98c379
highlight GitChangesUnstagedFile guifg=#e5c07b
highlight GitChangesStatusAdd    guifg=#98c379 gui=bold
highlight GitChangesStatusMod    guifg=#e5c07b gui=bold
highlight GitChangesStatusDel    guifg=#e06c75 gui=bold

Full list of groups: :help git-changes-config

---

Status icons

Icon	Meaning
M	Modified
A	Added
D	Deleted
R	Renamed
C	Copied
!	Unmerged (conflict)
?	Untracked

A file can appear under both STAGED and CHANGES if it has mixed staged/unstaged hunks.

---

Commands

Command	Description
:GitChanges	Toggle the panel
:GitChangesRefresh	Re-run git status and redraw

The panel auto-refreshes on BufWritePost and ShellCmdPost while open.

Full documentation

:help git-changes

License

The Unlicense — public domain. Do whatever you want.