File history and blame

File history lists the commits that changed one file, with the diff of each. Blame shows, for every line of a file, the commit that last changed it. Both replace the graph in the repository view; press Esc or click Graph to go back.

Open the history of a file

Entry point	Starts from
Diff toolbar, File history icon (diffs in the repository view)	HEAD
Right-click a file in the commit details panel or in the changes panel → File history	HEAD
Blame view, File history button	The commit being blamed
Blame view, right-click a line → File history	HEAD
Palette (⌘K, Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) → History of the current file	HEAD. Available when a diff, a blame or a file history is open in the active tab

When the history starts from a commit other than HEAD, its short SHA shows as a chip in the header. On a branch with no commit yet, the list is empty.

Read the file history

The left side lists Commits that changed the file, newest first, with their count. Each row shows:

• the change letter for this file (added, modified, deleted), or a merge icon for a merge commit,
• the commit summary and short SHA,
• the author and relative date,
• from old path on the commit that renamed the file.

The right side shows the selected commit’s change to this file, compared with its first parent, in the full diff viewer (layout, options, large-diff guard). Its toolbar has a Blame at this commit button; for a commit that deleted the file, it blames the version just before.

The newest commit is selected when the view opens. To move:

Key	Action
↑ / ↓, Home / End	Move in the list (when it has focus)
j / k, or the Older commit / Newer commit arrows of the diff toolbar	Older / newer commit
Esc	Close the history, back to the graph

The list loads by pages of 500 as you scroll (the count shows 500+ while more remain), so long histories open fast. It updates when branches move.

Renames

yaggui follows a file across renames. It reads the history of the current name, and when it reaches the commit that added that name, it looks in that commit for a rename (by content similarity, on the first parent) and continues with the old name. The rename commit shows from old path.

git log --name-status --no-renames <rev> -- <path>
git diff-tree -r --find-renames --name-status <parent> <commit>   # at the commit that added the name

This differs from git log --follow: it is faster on large repositories, it follows renames but not copies, and only along first parents. When no commit changed the path, the view says “No commit changed src/app.ts.”

Blame a file

Entry point	Version blamed
Diff toolbar, Blame icon (working tree diff)	The file on disk, including uncommitted changes
Diff toolbar, Blame at this commit icon (commit diff, file history)	The file at that commit
Right-click a file in the changes panel → Blame	The file on disk
Right-click a file in the commit details panel → Blame at this commit	The file at that commit
Palette → Blame of the current file	The version of the open diff

The header shows the path and a chip with the version blamed (a short SHA, or Working tree). Each line of the grid has:

• an age bar: eight shades from the oldest to the newest commit of this file. Shades follow the rank of the author dates, not their distance in time, so a file written in two weeks uses the same range as one written over ten years. Uncommitted lines take the newest shade.
• on the first line of each block from the same commit: the summary, the author and the relative date, or Not committed yet for local changes,
• the line number and the code.

yaggui runs git blame --incremental <commit> -- <path>. For the working tree, it sends the file on disk to git blame --incremental --contents - -- <path>. The view says “Attributing every line…” while it works.

Select a line’s commit

Click a line: every line of the same commit is highlighted, and the commit is selected in the graph, so the commit details panel follows. The blame stays open. The Selected commit bar at the bottom shows its short SHA, summary, author and date, with two buttons:

• Blame of the parent: blames the file as it was just before this commit, and scrolls to where these lines were. It follows renames. It is disabled with “These lines were added with the file” when there is no earlier version.
• Show in graph: closes the blame and shows the commit in the graph.

Each Blame of the parent adds a step to a trail: the Back to version button in the header returns to the previous version. Closing the blame or opening another blame, file history or reflog clears the trail.

Navigate and copy

Action	How
Next / previous block	↓ / ↑ in the grid
Blame of the parent, Show in graph, File history, Copy SHA	Right-click a line
Back to the graph	Esc or Graph

Show in graph and Copy SHA are disabled on uncommitted lines.

A working tree blame updates when the file or branches change. A blame at a commit never changes, so yaggui keeps it.

Large and special files

• Long files: only the visible lines are drawn, so files of tens of thousands of lines open and scroll normally.
• Binary files: “Binary file (48.2 KB): no lines to attribute.”
• A file that is not committed yet (new or untracked), blamed from the working tree: “This file is not committed yet: no line has a history.”
• An empty file: “This file is empty.”
• A file deleted from the working tree: the blame shows the HEAD version.
• A symbolic link: the blame shows the link’s target path as text.
• File history of a large file: each commit’s diff goes through the diff viewer’s size guard (“Large diff not shown”, with Show anyway), see Diff.

If reading fails, the view shows “Could not read the file history” or “Could not blame the file” with Retry; the command is in the command log.

File history and blame only read: nothing to undo.