vscode

1# VS Code CLI Tools
2 
3Tools for integrating with VS Code, primarily for viewing diffs.
4 
5## Requirements
6 
7VS Code must be installed with the `code` CLI available in PATH.
8 
9## Opening a Diff
10 
11Compare two files side by side in VS Code:
12 
13```bash
14code -d <file1> <file2>
15```
16 
17## Git Diffs in VS Code
18 
19### Simple Approach (no config needed)
20 
21Extract the old version to a temp file, then diff:
22 
23```bash
24# Compare with previous commit
25git show HEAD~1:path/to/file > /tmp/old && code -d /tmp/old path/to/file
26 
27# Compare with specific commit
28git show abc123:path/to/file > /tmp/old && code -d /tmp/old path/to/file
29 
30# Compare staged version with working tree
31git show :path/to/file > /tmp/staged && code -d /tmp/staged path/to/file
32```
33 
34### Gotchas
35 
36- File must exist and have changes between the compared revisions
37- Use `git log --oneline -5 -- path/to/file` to verify file has history before diffing
38 
39## When to Use
40 
41- Showing the user what changed in a file
42- Comparing two versions of code
43- Reviewing git changes visually