A better way to view git blame info in Atom.
(Doubles up as the Atom integration for the Layer app.)
- What makes it better?
- How do I use it?
- How do I get setup?
- FAQ
- Contributing
- License
- What is Layer?
- What is Stepsize?
- Security and privacy
TL;DR: it does more than just display git blame annotations in the gutter – it pulls in info about pull requests & related issues, and helps you visualise the blame info.
A rich popover displays summary info about the commit, its corresponding pull request, any related issues, and visualises the commit's age.
Line highlighting makes it clear which other lines were introduced by the blame commit and its corresponding pull request.
Oh and it's also fast and nicely designed.
Use ctrl-b to toggle the blame gutter.
Alternatively, right click the file you want to blame and select Toggle Better Git Blame, or search for this command in the command palette (cmd-shift-p).
Hover over the blame text to display the popover & line highlighting.
Run apm install better-git-blame and restart Atom. You can also install it from Atom's Settings pane.
That's all you need to get going, but if you want to see info about pull requests and issues, you'll need to install one of our integrations.
Install the Layer GitHub app to view pull requests and issues in the blame popover. Wondering about permissions? See here.
Note: Unfortunately the GitLab integration is temporarily unavailable. Apologies.
Create a personal access token and share it with us here to view pull requests and issues in the blame popover. Wondering about permissions? See here.
Install our Jira integration to view Jira issues in the blame popover. (This currently requires the GitHub or GitLab integration to work.)
Go the Add-ons page of your Jira instance (see screenshot below) and search for Layer connector for Jira.
Is this free?
Yep.
Do you integrate with other code hosting tools?
Currently we support GitHub and GitLab but we plan to support BitBucket in the near future. Let us know that you're interested in another integration by tweeting at us @StepsizeHQ.
Do you integrate with other project management tools?
Currently we only support GitHub, GitLab, and Jira, but we plan to support Trello and Pivotal Tracker in the near future. Let us know that you're interested in another integration by tweeting at us @StepsizeHQ.
Can I use this plugin if I don't use pull requests or issues?
Sure, everything will still work. In that case you don't need to setup any integrations and can use the plugin out of the box.
Can I use this plugin without the integrations?
Sure, everything will still work but you'll only see information about commits.
Is this available for other editors?
Not yet, but we intend to port it to other editors. Don't hesitate to get in touch (@StepsizeHQ or hello@stepsize.com) if you'd like to develop a version for your favourite editor so we can give you an overview of what this plugin does under the hood.
Can I use this plugin with the Layer app?
Absolutely, this plugin talks to the app so you can search over selected code.
Do I have to use the Layer app with this plugin?
Nope, you can use this plugin standalone and can turn off the UDP connection used with the Layer app (you can do this from the plugin's settings).
GitHub & GitLab integrations
Your code is not sent anywhere, but we need read access to code so we can map commits to pull requests. This is just how permissions work for GitHub apps unfortunately.
And the GitLab integration is a simple first pass with personal access tokens. We plan to flesh it out in the future, but for now this means we get the same permissions as you, which include access to code.
UDP messaging to Layer
To work with the Layer app, this plugin sends UDP messages to the app so it can perform searches for the code you selected. These UDP messages only contain file paths and selected line numbers, not code.
Does the plugin do any dodgy stuff I should know about?
No it doesn't, although you may find the fact that we collect usage analytics dodgy.
To be completely transparent, we offer this plugin for free in the hope that it will entice you to try out other Stepsize products. We're a business, after all, and developing this and hosting the backend for it costs us money, so we'd like to measure its worth.
Our analytics are completely anonymous, do not track any sensitive or personally identifiable data, and will only be used to improve Stepsize products.
We hope you understand, but if you don't you can turn off absolutely all the analytics and use the plugin under the radar. You can also poke around the code to see for yourself what is tracked.
If you'd like to contribute we'd love to hear from you - just tweet at us @StepsizeHQ or email us at hello@stepsize.com. Alternatively you can just fork the plugin and submit a PR.
All the software in this repository is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for details.
Layer is a desktop app we're working on, currently in private beta. It allows you to browse the documentation we automatically generate for any piece of code you select in your editor. It's the counterpart to our browser app.
You can find out more about our self-maintaining documentation here stepsize.com.
Stepsize is a startup based in London. We're developing a product that automatically documents agile teams' code by piecing together their data to maintain version controlled documentation.
Check us out here or tweet at us @StepsizeHQ 🙏
If you set up the GitHub, GitLab, and/or Jira integrations, you might be interested in our security statement & privacy policy.
You can safely ignore them if you don't use the integrations.