Add setting to show commit SHAs in tree

[James Miller (jameswilmiller)]

Fixes #8701

I wasn't sure whether community contributions were being accepted but I took the liberty of making the PR.

Summary:

Adds a new setting that displays abbreviated commit SHAs in the pull request commits tree.

When enabled, commit descriptions are shown in the following format:

49334c4 · 2 days ago

I went with this design decision because date will truncate before SHA which I believe is the more important
piece of information when reviewing the commits as a list. If you believe a different direction would be better feel free to comment.

The setting defaults to disabled, so the existing behaviour remains unchanged.

Changes:

• Added the githubPullRequests.showCommitShaInTree setting.
• Added localized text for the setting.
• Displayed the first seven characters of the commit SHA when the setting is enabled.
• Preserved the relative commit date when available.
• Refreshed the commits tree immediately when the setting changes.

Testing:

manually verified that:

• The setting is disabled by default.
• Enabling the setting displays the abbreviated commit SHA.
• Disabling the setting removes the SHA.
• The commits tree updates without reloading the window.
• Commits with a date display · .
• Commits without a date display only the short SHA when enabled.
• Existing commit-tree functionality continues to work.

No automated tests were added ( I wasn't sure whether this was required but I am happy to write some if needed ).

I have attached screenshots below,

Screenshots

Setting:

Disabled Setting:

Disabled Setting with no date:

Enabled Setting:

Enabled Setting with no date:

[James Miller (jameswilmiller)]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

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Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Suppressed comments (4)

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:51

• The description is computed once in the constructor, so toggling showCommitShaInTree may not update existing CommitNode instances even if the parent refreshes. To ensure the UI reflects the current setting, compute/update description inside getTreeItem() (or recompute on refresh) rather than only in the constructor.

		this.description = this._getDescription();
	}

	private _getDescription(): string | undefined {
		const date = this.commit.commit.author?.date ? dateFromNow(this.commit.commit.author.date) : undefined;
		if (!vscode.workspace.getConfiguration(PR_SETTINGS_NAMESPACE).get<boolean>(SHOW_COMMIT_SHA_IN_TREE, false)) {
			return date;
		}
		const shortSha = this.commit.sha.substring(0, 7);
		return date ? `${shortSha} · ${date}` : shortSha;

	}

src/view/treeNodes/commitsCategoryNode.ts:48

• Use the standard capitalization 'SHA' instead of 'Sha' in the log message.

				Logger.appendLine(`Commit Sha display setting has changed, refreshing Commits node`, PR_TREE);

package.nls.json:193

• This description string is missing a trailing period, which is inconsistent with nearby setting descriptions.

	"githubPullRequests.showCommitShaInTree.description": "Shows the abbreviated commit SHA in the tree view",

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:41

• The leading underscore is typically redundant on private methods in TypeScript and can be inconsistent with common conventions. Consider renaming to getDescription() (or computeDescription()) for clarity and consistency.

	private _getDescription(): string | undefined {

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Suppressed comments (2)

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:46

• The new setting-driven formatting logic in _getDescription is not covered by automated tests. Since the repo already has unit tests for tree nodes under src/test/view/treeNodes, it would be good to add a focused test verifying the description output for (1) setting disabled, (2) enabled + date, and (3) enabled + no date.

	private _getDescription(): string | undefined {
		const date = this.commit.commit.author?.date ? dateFromNow(this.commit.commit.author.date) : undefined;
		if (!vscode.workspace.getConfiguration(PR_SETTINGS_NAMESPACE).get<boolean>(SHOW_COMMIT_SHA_IN_TREE, false)) {
			return date;
		}
		const shortSha = this.commit.sha.substring(0, 7);
		return date ? `${shortSha} · ${date}` : shortSha;

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:48

• CommitNode already stores sha on the instance (this.sha = commit.sha), but _getDescription re-reads it from this.commit.sha. Using this.sha avoids duplication and keeps the source of truth consistent.

		const shortSha = this.commit.sha.substring(0, 7);
		return date ? `${shortSha} · ${date}` : shortSha;

	}

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Suppressed comments (1)

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:46

• New config-driven description formatting is introduced here but isn’t covered by unit tests. The repo already has Mocha tests for tree nodes under src/test/view/treeNodes/ and patterns for stubbing vscode.workspace.getConfiguration (e.g. src/test/issues/stateManager.test.ts). Consider adding a CommitNode test that verifies: (1) setting disabled => description is just the relative date/undefined, (2) setting enabled + date => <shortSha> · <relativeDate>, (3) setting enabled + no date => <shortSha> (use fake timers to make dateFromNow deterministic).

		if (!vscode.workspace.getConfiguration(PR_SETTINGS_NAMESPACE).get<boolean>(SHOW_COMMIT_SHA_IN_TREE, false)) {
			return date;
		}
		const shortSha = this.sha.substring(0, 7);
		return date ? `${shortSha} · ${date}` : shortSha;

[Alex Ross (alexr00)]

Thanks for the PR! This looks good, but I'm not sure we actually need a setting for this: let's just always show the commit sha exactly as you have it. If enough folks don't like it, I'll bring back your setting.

[James Miller (jameswilmiller)]

Thanks for the feedback. I removed the setting and made commit SHAs always display in the Commits tree. I also manually verified the behavior in the Extension Development Host.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Suppressed comments (1)

src/view/treeNodes/commitNode.ts:44

• The new description formatting is applied unconditionally, so commit SHAs will show even when the proposed setting is disabled (and commits without a date will now always show a SHA). This contradicts the PR description/default behavior and changes the existing UI when the setting is off.

Consider gating the SHA prefix behind a configuration check (and returning the original date-only/undefined description when disabled). Also, the setting key doesn’t appear to exist elsewhere in the repo yet (no matches for showCommitShaInTree), so this code should be resilient to the setting being absent (treat as disabled).

	private _getDescription(): string | undefined {
		const date = this.commit.commit.author?.date ? dateFromNow(this.commit.commit.author.date) : undefined;
		const shortSha = this.sha.substring(0, 7);
		return date ? `${shortSha} · ${date}` : shortSha;