Branches : Git empowers users to multitask and experiment with their code through branches. If you're working on multiple features at the same time or if you want to explore ideas without affecting your working code, branching can be helpful.

Graph : This section visualizes the state of your branch. It has three subsections:

Commit : Selecting any commit in the Graph section opens its details. You can check the changes that a commit has introduced by selecting them, which shows a difference. For example, the previous screenshot shows the changes that one commit introduced to the Resize.cs file.

The Alt + Up arrow or Alt + Down arrow keyboard shortcuts allow you to jump between these sections.

You can browse through any local or remote branch without having to switch your branch. When you find a commit that you want to focus on, select the Open in New Tab button to open the commit on a different tab.

There's both line coloring and branch labels on the left side of the Local History view that help make it easier to trace which commits belong to each branch. You can use the list of branches at the top of the table to scroll between branches more easily and know immediately which branches appear in the graph.

Compare commits

To compare any two commits in your branch, use the Ctrl key to select the two commits that you want to compare. Then, right-click one of them and select Compare Commits .

Similar to Commit Details , you can use the Open in New Tab button to open the comparison on a different tab or maximize it on the screen.

Create a branch from a commit

In Visual Studio, you can use the Git Graph pane in the Git Repository window to create branches from previous commits. To do so, right-click the commit you would like to create a new branch from, and then select New Branch .

The equivalent command for this action is git branch <branchname> [<commit-id>] .

Compare branches

Comparing branches provides an overview of differences between two branches, which can be helpful before creating a pull request, merging, or even deleting a branch.

To compare your currently checked out branch with other branches using Visual Studio, you can utilize the branch picker hosted in the status bar and the Git changes tool window to choose any local or remote branch to compare with. Right-click the branch you're targeting and select Compare with Current Branch . Alternatively, you can utilize the branch list on the Git Repository window to access the same command.

Checkout commits

Checking out a commit can be beneficial in multiple ways. For example, it allows you to go back to a previous point in your repository’s history where you can run or test your code. It can also be helpful if you would like to review code from a remote branch (a colleague’s branch, for example). That way you don’t need to create a local branch if you aren't planning on contributing to it. In this case, you can just check out the tip of the remote branch that you would like to review.

To check out a previous commit in Visual Studio, open the Git Repository window, right-click the commit you would like to go back to and select checkout (–detach) . Visual Studio shows a confirmation dialog explaining that by checking out a commit, you'll be in a detached HEAD state. Meaning that the HEAD of your repository is going to point directly to a commit instead of a branch.

Now that you are in a detached head state, feel free to run and test your code or even explore and commit changes. When you're done exploring and want to go back to your branch, you can choose to discard your changes by checking out an existing branch or choose to keep your changes by creating a new branch first.

Important

Commits created in a detached head state are not associated with any branch and may be garbage collected by Git after you check out a branch. That is why to keep your changes, it is recommended to create a new branch before checking out a branch. For example, commits C5 and C6 will be garbage collected if we check out Main without creating a new branch.

To learn more about the detached head state, see the Detached Head Git documentation.

Checking out the tip of a remote branch can be helpful if you would like to quickly review a pull request and evaluate the latest updates. To do that in Visual Studio, first make sure to fetch and get the latest updates from your remote repository. Then right-click the remote branch you would like to review and select Checkout Tip Commit .

Next steps

To continue your journey, see Manage Git repositories in Visual Studio .

See also