Side-by-side Git View

[spkgyk]

It would be nice to see changes side-by-side instead of vertically, with differences highlighted. For example, if I change a variable name from addtwonumbers to addTwoNumbers, the T and the N would be highlighted.

VS Code does something similar, and I think it provides a very easy viewing experience. As with vim, you could switch from the left buffer and right buffer with ctrl-w-h and ctrl-w-l.

The highlighting isn't that clear with vs code, but the side-by-side view is very nice to see. It means I can edit code in the git diff viewer, and see the changes to the original code in real time.

[Joride]

Xcode does a similar thing, and allows jumping from one change to the next with the up and down arrows, by clicking the divider between the views.
Very, very useful when going over any leftovers/remnants of a debugging session before committing.

[filipfalcon]

I've been trying the current implementation for weeks, but I haven't found it to be more useful or clearer than the VS Code version, especially for comparing staged files and resolving Git conflicts. Have you considered opening an issue? I wasn't able to find one.

[raul-gherman]

I second this request

[eliotttak]

Me too.

[sporritt]

I'd vote for this too. Having just come across Zed I think it looks great, but the diff view pales in comparison with the side-by-side that I'm used to in IntelliJ.

[ArturAronov]

This feature would be a great addition. Coming from VSCode, this is something that I miss a lot...

[remorses]

This is one of the most important features for me

[widersky]

Just copy-paste IntelliJ implementation, it's the best out there.

[sporritt]

Me too. And then there's also changelists...

[stychu]

Exactly. The points which make me keep using inteliij 😩😩😩 Dev team. Please copy onteliij git handling and u automatically get huge userbase

[symph-antonio]

Very true. It's the best out there right now. I keep coming back to it for reviewing changes.

[westykid]

I am using Zed to code (on one screen) and intellij to diff on the other with the same source. Their implementation is just - the BEST - end of.

[warapitiya]

Exactly. I quit Zed and open WebStorm just to commit and push stuff.

[Imamsubekti26]

I think this is a duplicate with this #4523

[remorses]

nope, completely different, this issue is for deletions and additions to be in separate panes to make it easier to read

[bkgthumanity]

Yup this is my number one missing feature. The over and above git view is really hard to get the context of the changes particular if they are more extensive. A side by side diff view where you can easily see the new file vs the old file (with changes highlighted) is so much easier to read. (It also works better when working with LLM's too as it's easier to copy past new and old files... to put into an llm).

[lasfito]

bumping this as i just switched to zed and this is currently one of my main struggles

[matthieusieben]

Also, add a panel that allows to choose what to compare with:

• HEAD
• main branch
• main branch (on remote)
• arbitrary branch

see #31961

[zhe]

It would be very helpful to support the option of Ignore Trim Whitespace.

(seen in VS Code under Settings > Text Editor > Diff Editor)

[LeoLionel]

Same here: Not having a side by side view for git changes is the one feature I am missing to fully switch over to Zed.

[ghb-enzian]

I am alsao having this issue. Especially I do not want to make the agent changes and then bulk view but I want to stay in 'ask' mode and then 'generate' a diff per 'parts' I copy into the editor and inspect the diff.

[swaroop0210]

yeah i feels like i get used to so much seeing the diff side by side in vs code. a little bit trouble viewing it vertically. of course a skill issue though.

[filipfalcon]

You can climb up the mountain using hands only, but why would you do that if you can use legs.

[kmatt]

Is it possible to use an external pager with Zed?

While waiting for a built-in, https://github.com/dandavison/delta does a good side-by-side diff presentation.

[reslear]

or https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic

[lionel-]

You can launch a cli app like lazygit in a task and configure it to use delta. See #8665 (comment) for discussions on integrating lazygit in zed, and https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/blob/master/docs/Custom_Pagers.md#delta for using Delta as pager.

[ojpro]

It's now in preview release
https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/releases/tag/v0.224.0-pre

[coolemur]

Is it possible to have side-by-side in "git:file history" view ?
Seems like it's not working there.
In file changes it does.

[ojpro]

Yeah, it's not there yet, but I think it won't be too much work to integrate it, as they have done many improvements to the split mode

[EfstathiadisD]

When will it come out? That and Timeline History per File are the 2 missing features!

Amazing work. Speed ,Speed, speed! I forgot how fast editors were!

Zed is the epitome of we are the fastest editor, not hugging 3Gb of RAM(360-500Mb tops) and we implement AI where it makes sense! Not up and down the whole thing without thought!

Thank You!🙏

[thebrownfox]

@EfstathiadisD my guess would be on Wednesday since it's in preview already, so less than a week.

[chenwuji2000-cyber]

100% build by Claude Code Opus4.6 in swarm mode in 20min by only one prompt.

I know zed must have put tons of effort improving performance.

But why not ship first then make it better? Since the need is quite certain.

No harm. Happy to disscuss. Zed is my main IDE for cc now.

git clone -b feat/git_side_by_side_view https://github.com/chenwuji2000-cyber/zed.git

[somtooo]

@coolemur like I said ai could have written the code and we still won't have gotten it early. The delay on this feature is more than just writing the code

[somtooo]

Remember they implemented this in less than a month I think. We've been waiting what a whole year?. So the code definitely not the bottleneck

[coolemur]

Makes sense. Bottleneck is not code anymore.

[SuperKenVery]

There are devs that have standards and then there are vibe coders.

Well, until vibed codes meet high standards. I would say that, many of the time, Opus 4.6 meets my standard after a few turns of conversation.

If you think it's half ass implementation, pull it, build it, and find out what is missing. Otherwise, written by AI isn't anything to attack. Humans can write slop too.

[chenwuji2000-cyber]

@coolemur like I said ai could have written the code and we still won't have gotten it early. The delay on this feature is more than just writing the code

I am about to sleep and having my vacation, so just leaving some of my thoughts. No need to reply.

"The delay is more than just writing the code"

I totally agree that.

But for a for-profit product, timeline is literally "deadline".

Good product, wrong timing, bad ending.

Cursor on tab completion is 100x better than Zed. But this advantage is getting less important, since people is going to no longer writer code themselves.

But it matters a lot 2-3 year's ago, KITE tab only, the GitHub Copilot starts with tab only.

If you put the world's best tab completion now, it's unlikely to bloom.

Again, time really matters, especially for a commercial company.

People write code with AI, review it with IDE (not the terminal, that is the reason why I use Zed) So… people asking for better diff review experience, for me, as a startup founder, has a lot commercial potential.

Imagine, a side by side AI code viewer, showing their opinions on each diff, just click approve or reject.

Won't this feature be attractive?

A chat coder, we have Cursor

A terminal agent, we have Claude code or Codex

A best diff review experience IDE with AI augmented? Zed?

Ok, It is too far.

People argue a lot about this, because they really need this.

Codes are tools, Values are rules.

Wish you all a nice day!

😴😴😴

[olejorgenb]

Released: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/releases/tag/v0.224.4 (#48912)

[6twenty]

Would love if this setting could apply to viewing git stash diffs also 🙏

[noahschumacher]

I really wish there was a setting where the file was not truncated to the diffs and was a complete file. I would have to select other file diffs in the gitt view to view another one (as opposed to vertically scrolling).

Regardless it's a good day for Zed users. Thanks to all who helped push this issue.

[lionel-]

Love it!

I wonder if a setting to auto-switch between unified and side-by-side depending on screen width of editor would be helpful? When I have both LHS sidebar and the agent panel open, there's no room for a comfortable side-by-side view.

[injust]

A command should be added for editor::ToggleSplitDiff. I'd want to toggle that using the keyboard, but probably won't use it enough to warrant setting a keybind for it.

[injust]

#49912

[cod3licious]

So glad that this was finally implemented! But can the background on the side where stuff is empty please be some kind of neutral grey or something? I find this png-transparency-style checkered background really distracting 🙈

[ArturAronov]

I feel the same, however its something that I can live with, and I'm more than happy that we have the feature. Finally i can be done with the VSC and delete it!

[chanmathew]

Glad this is rolled out! I think some additional improvements would help make this on par and able to migrate away from VS Code or other forks of it:

1. The ability to show entire file when viewing diffs, seeing just the edited parts often doesn't give you the full context for proper code review
2. Clicking git diffs should show just a single file, or at least option to default single or multi-buffer - Especially with the current truncated views, it's very difficult to discern between sections and when you are crossing file boundaries, just makes the review experience very confusing
3. Separate staged versus non-staged areas like in VS Code. The current checkbox behavior loses a critical feature that saves a ton of time. Often times when you are making code changes, especially with agents, you might want to stage certain files to "preserve" latest changes, then when updates are made, you can see whether those latest changes make sense, and if not, revert to the staged version. Having the ability to separate the previous staged file and the latest changes gives you better control over viewing the diffs at different points in time, which is super useful and doesn't force you to commit the file first, essentially giving you a 2 stage process.

IMO, those 3 changes would massively make a difference from being able to migrate completely off other IDEs and fully commit to Zed!

[cmhobbs]

I love the feature and I'm stoked that it's been released!

[Ashishjain608]

Finally its Live. Really happy for this and great job team...

[JosephTLyons]

Hey all,

v0.224 introduced the ability to view diffs in split mode.
If you spot any bugs, file a report.
For additional functionality, open a discussion.
Thank you!

[giladgd]

I've made a discussion for a feature request for curves in diff views (like JetBrains IDEs).
Linking it here in case anyone who follows this discussion is interested in this: #49917

[crowjake]

I don't yet seem to have side-by-side view as an option when comparing two files... is that a known issue?

[Oberto]

It's currently git diffs only.

[robin-samuel]

Made a feature request for file comparison side by side. #49987

[injust]

#50046

[tokyo4j]

Now I can see the side-by-side diff view for "Uncomitted Changes" Tab, but I still see the unified diff view when I click a file in a commit in git graph tab. Is the side-by-side diff view supported for this?

EDIT: replaced the screenshot with a bigger one.

[tokyo4j]

$ zeditor --version
Zed 1.2.6 – /usr/lib/zed/zed-editor

[abotsi]

Same behavior here

[YukiCoco]

Same issue

[hrasekj]

It looks like it's not a bug, but not implemented feature 😢

[mturley]

Same here, do we know if there's something on the roadmap for this that I can follow? Having trouble finding it