Working with GitHub in VS Code

GitHub is a cloud-based service for storing and sharing source code. Using GitHub with Visual Studio Code lets you share your source code and collaborate with others right within your editor. There are many ways to interact with GitHub, for example, via their website at https://github.com or the Git command-line interface (CLI), but in VS Code, the rich GitHub integration is provided by the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension.

Install the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension

To get started with the GitHub in VS Code, you'll need to install Git, create a GitHub account and install the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension. In this topic, we'll demonstrate how you can use some of your favorite parts of GitHub without leaving VS Code.

If you're new to source control or want to learn more about VS Code's basic Git support, you can start with the Source Control topic.

Getting started with GitHub Pull Requests and Issues

Once you've installed the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension, you'll need to sign in. Follow the prompts to authenticate with GitHub in the browser and return to VS Code.

If you are not redirected to VS Code, you can add your authorization token manually. In the browser window, you will receive your authorization token. Copy the token, and switch back to VS Code. Select Signing in to github.com... in the Status bar, paste the token, and hit Enter.

Setting up a repository

Cloning a repository

You can search for and clone a repository from GitHub using the Git: Clone command in the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) or by using the Clone Repository button in the Source Control view (available when you have no folder open).

From the GitHub repository dropdown you can filter and pick the repository you want to clone locally.

Authenticating with an existing repository

Enabling authentication through GitHub happens when you run any Git action in VS Code that requires GitHub authentication, such as pushing to a repository that you're a member of or cloning a private repository. You don't need to have any special extensions installed for authentication; it is built into VS Code so that you can efficiently manage your repository.

When you do something that requires GitHub authentication, you'll see a prompt to sign in:

Follow the steps to sign into GitHub and return to VS Code. If authenticating with an existing repository doesn't work automatically, you may need to manually provide a personal access token. See Personal Access Token authentication for more information.

Note that there are several ways to authenticate to GitHub, including using your username and password with two-factor authentication (2FA), a personal access token, or an SSH key. See About authentication to GitHub for more information and details about each option.

Note: If you'd like to work on a repository without cloning the contents to your local machine, you can install the GitHub Repositories extension to browse and edit directly on GitHub. You can learn more below in the GitHub Repositories extension section.

Editor integration

Hovers

When you have a repository open and a user is @-mentioned, you can hover over that username and see a GitHub-style hover.

There is a similar hover for #-mentioned issue numbers, full GitHub issue URLs, and repository specified issues.