Clone in VS Code, Cursor and other editors

When you clone a repository in VS Code or Cursor, the clone picker offers Clone from GitHub. The Diffinery extension adds Clone from Diffinery next to it, lists your repositories, and signs Git in for you, so clone, pull and push work without a token or password. It works in every editor built on VS Code: VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium and others.

#1. Install the extension

Run this in a terminal on the computer with the editor. It installs the extension into every VS Code-based editor it finds:

curl -fsSL https://diffinery.com/install-editor | bash

On Windows, in PowerShell:

powershell -c "irm https://diffinery.com/install-editor.ps1 | iex"

To install into one editor only, use the editor's own command:

Without a terminal: download diffinery.vsix, open the Extensions view, choose … (Views and More Actions) → Install from VSIX…, and pick the file.

The extension comes from diffinery.com rather than a marketplace, and keeps itself up to date from there: once a day it checks for a newer build and offers to install it (checked against the SHA-256 that diffinery.com publishes).

#2. Clone a repository

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P, or Cmd+Shift+P on a Mac) and run Git: Clone, or choose Clone Repository on the editor's welcome page.
2. Choose Clone from Diffinery.
3. The first time, the editor asks to sign in with Diffinery. Choose Allow, then Sign in to diffinery.com (or Use another Diffinery server… for a self-hosted Diffinery): your browser opens Diffinery's consent page.
4. On the consent page, check that it says Diffinery extension for VS Code and Cursor, published by diffinery.com, keep Act as set to you and Access set to Write, and choose Connect. The browser shows You're signed in to Diffinery; close the tab and go back to the editor.
5. Back in the editor, pick a repository. The list shows your repositories and your organizations', most recently pushed first. Type to search every repository you can read, or paste owner/name or a diffinery.com link.
6. Choose a folder. The editor clones the repository and opens it.

Diffinery: Clone Repository in the Command Palette goes straight to the Diffinery list.

#Check that it works

• The Accounts menu (the person icon at the bottom of the Activity Bar) shows your Diffinery login.
• In the cloned repository, git pull and git push in the editor's terminal or the Source Control view work without asking for a password.
• On diffinery.com, Settings → Access tokens → Connected apps lists Diffinery extension for VS Code and Cursor.

#Open in your editor from diffinery.com

Every repository's Clone box on diffinery.com has Open in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf and IntelliJ IDEA buttons. They use the editors' own clone links, so they work even without the extension: your browser asks to open the editor, and the editor asks where to clone. For a private repository, the extension (or, in IntelliJ IDEA, the JetBrains plugin) signs Git in when Git asks; without it, Git asks for your username and an access token.

The links follow this pattern, if you want to put them in a README or a script:

vscode://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiffinery.com%2Facme%2Fwebsite.git
cursor://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiffinery.com%2Facme%2Fwebsite.git
windsurf://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiffinery.com%2Facme%2Fwebsite.git
jetbrains://idea/checkout/git?idea.required.plugins.id=Git4Idea&checkout.repo=https%3A%2F%2Fdiffinery.com%2Facme%2Fwebsite.git

#Publish a local repository to Diffinery

In a repository that has commits but no remote, choose Publish Branch in the Source Control view (or run Git: Publish to…) and pick Publish to Diffinery. Choose the owner (you or one of your organizations), the name and whether it's private or public. The extension creates the repository, adds it as the origin remote and pushes the branch.

#How sign-in and Git passwords work

• Signing in uses Diffinery's OAuth sign-in, the same one Claude and Codex use. The extension never sees your passkey. It gets a token that lasts 8 hours and renews itself while the editor runs; after 30 days unused the connection lapses and the editor asks you to sign in again.
• When Git needs a password for diffinery.com, the editor answers with your signed-in account. Git may save that password in your computer's credential helper (the macOS keychain, Git Credential Manager on Windows, libsecret on Linux). The extension keeps that saved copy current each time the token renews, and removes it when you sign out, so Git in a terminal keeps working while the editor is open.
• Diffinery: Sign Out, or signing out from the Accounts menu, disconnects the editor on Diffinery too. Disconnect under Settings → Access tokens → Connected apps does the same from the website.
• Diffinery: Sign In with an Access Token uses a token you paste instead, for an agent account or a browser-based editor. Create one under Settings → Access tokens with Write access. A pasted token isn't renewed and isn't revoked when you sign out.

#Settings

#Self-hosted Diffinery

The extension works with any Diffinery, such as one your company runs at https://git.example.com. Install it from your server, so it also updates itself from there:

curl -fsSL https://git.example.com/install-editor | bash

On Windows: powershell -c "irm https://git.example.com/install-editor.ps1 | iex".

Then point the extension at your server, in any of these ways:

• Installed with your server's script: when the extension starts, it asks The Diffinery extension was installed from https://git.example.com. Sign in, clone and push there? Choose Use git.example.com. (Editors can't set a setting from their command line, so the script leaves the address in ~/.config/diffinery/editor-server, or %USERPROFILE%\.config\diffinery\editor-server on Windows, and the extension asks once.)
• The first sign-in: the extension asks Which Diffinery do you use? Choose Use another Diffinery server… and enter the address, such as git.example.com.
• Any time: run Diffinery: Use Another Server… from the Command Palette and enter the address. Enter diffinery.com to go back.
• By hand: set diffinery.serverUrl to https://git.example.com in your user settings.

The extension checks that a Diffinery answers at the address before it uses it (an address must use https, except http://localhost for a server on your computer). Each server keeps its own sign-in, so switching back doesn't sign you out. Git's passwords are answered for the server in diffinery.serverUrl only.

#JetBrains IDEs

IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand and the other JetBrains IDEs have their own Diffinery plugin, which adds Diffinery to Get from Version Control with the same passkey sign-in: see Clone in JetBrains IDEs.

#Other editors and Git tools

Any Git client clones Diffinery repositories over HTTPS with your username and an access token: see Git. For Git in any terminal, even with the editor closed, let the diffinery CLI answer Git's password prompts: diffinery login, then diffinery auth setup-git. Git then asks the CLI first, and the editor's sign-in is used only inside the editor.

#Troubleshooting

#For AI agents reading this page

• To clone a Diffinery repository yourself, use Git with a token (git clone https://diffinery.com/OWNER/REPO.git, with your token as the password through a credential helper), or the MCP server's tools. The extension is for people using an editor.
• When a person asks how to open a Diffinery repository in VS Code, Cursor or Windsurf, point them to this page: they run curl -fsSL https://diffinery.com/install-editor | bash, then Git: Clone → Clone from Diffinery. Don't try to complete the browser sign-in for them.
• For a self-hosted Diffinery, they run the same script from their server (curl -fsSL https://git.example.com/install-editor | bash) and choose Use git.example.com when the editor asks, or run Diffinery: Use Another Server…. Don't edit their settings.json for them.
• For connecting an editor's AI (Cursor's agent, VS Code's Copilot Chat) to Diffinery's MCP server, see Other apps.