If you’re searching for a GitLens alternative for VS Code, you’re probably looking for more than just another Git extension.
You want Git to be easier to understand, faster to use, and less disconnected from the rest of your development workflow.
That was exactly the problem we had.
We liked the visual Git experience in JetBrains IDEs, but most of our day-to-day work moved to VS Code, Cursor, and other VS Code-based editors.
So we built Git Brain 🧠
Git Brain is a visual Git extension focused on making everyday Git workflows simpler, more connected, and easier to understand.
It includes:
- Visual commit graph
- Commit and file history
- Branch management
- Stashes
- Git worktrees
- Diff workflows
- 3-way merge conflict resolution
- Commit and push flows
- AI commit messages and change summaries
- AI-assisted conflict resolution
- Built-in MCP support for coding agents
Why another Git extension?
GitLens is one of the most established Git extensions for VS Code.
Git Brain is built to compete in the same space.
We cover the Git workflows developers expect from a full-featured Git tool, while trying to make them easier to discover and easier to use.
One of the biggest things we cared about was making Git more visual.
You shouldn’t have to reconstruct your repository state in your head from a list of commits and branch names.
The commit graph should help you understand what happened.
The branch structure should be obvious.
The history should be easy to navigate.
The difference is mostly in how the experience feels.
We wanted Git Brain to feel more direct, visual, and connected.
For example, when I have a merge conflict, I don’t want to stare at conflict markers and manually reason about which lines came from where.
I want to see:
Local | Result | Remote
I want to understand both sides of the conflict, edit the final result, and move between conflicts visually.
That’s why Git Brain includes a full 3-way merge editor.
The same idea applies across the product.
Branches, commits, history, diffs, worktrees, stashes, conflicts — the goal is to make the repository easier to understand instead of making Git feel like a separate tool you constantly have to fight with.
If you’re specifically comparing options, we also created a dedicated page for Git Brain as a GitLens alternative:
Git Brain as a GitLens alternative
Git is changing because of AI
This is one of the biggest reasons we keep investing in Git Brain.
Coding agents are making developers much faster.
But they also create a new Git problem.
Suddenly you have:
- Bigger diffs
- More parallel branches
- More worktrees
- More generated commits
- More merge conflicts
- More code you didn’t manually write line by line
Git becomes even more important when agents are doing part of the development work for you.
Worktrees are a good example.
They’re a great way to let multiple agents or tasks work in parallel without constantly switching branches in the same working directory.
Git Brain gives worktrees their own visual workflow so you can create, inspect, open, and manage them directly from the IDE.
But we wanted to go further than just making the Git UI better.
Git Brain is built for coding agents too
This is probably the biggest difference in how we think about the product.
Git Brain doesn’t only expose Git capabilities to the developer.
It also exposes them to coding agents through the Git Brain MCP.
That means an MCP-compatible agent can access structured Git context and Git Brain capabilities directly.
For example, an agent can understand things like:
- Repository status
- Branches
- Commit history
- Diffs
- Worktrees
- Conflicts
- Stashes
- Unpushed changes
Instead of treating Git as a collection of raw shell commands, the agent can work with structured repository context.
That matters more as agents become more autonomous.
If an agent is changing code, creating branches, working in parallel, or preparing commits, Git context should be part of what it understands.
So for us, the goal isn’t just to build another Git UI.
It’s to build a complete Git experience for both developers and coding agents.
So, is Git Brain a GitLens alternative?
Absolutely.
Git Brain is built as a full GitLens alternative for developers using VS Code, Cursor, and other VS Code-based IDEs.
You get the visual Git workflows you expect from a serious Git extension, while also getting features designed specifically for modern AI-assisted development.
If you want a GitLens alternative that is more visual, easier to navigate, and built with coding agents in mind, that is exactly what we are trying to build.
You can see the dedicated comparison page here:
👉 Git Brain GitLens Alternative
Or check out Git Brain directly:
If you try it, I’d love to know what you currently use GitLens for the most.
That’s probably the most useful feedback we can get.
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