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Editor setup

VS Code and editors built on it, such as Cursor and Windsurf, run every Git operation through the executable named by the git.path setting. Point it at git-dedup and the editor's clone and worktree commands use the shared store.

  1. Find the absolute path to the git-dedup binary. Point the editor at the native binary itself rather than the npm launcher: it starts faster, and editors on Windows can only run an .exe.

    • Installed with npm: the binary is inside the global package. Run npm root -g and append git-dedup/native/<platform>-<arch>/git-dedup, where the platform is darwin, linux, or win32 and the architecture is x64 or arm64. On Windows, the name ends in .exe. For example: /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/git-dedup/native/darwin-arm64/git-dedup or C:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\git-dedup\native\win32-x64\git-dedup.exe.
    • Installed from a release archive or package: the git-dedup executable you installed, for example /usr/bin/git-dedup.

  2. Open your user settings JSON (Command Palette → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)). git.path is a machine setting, so workspace settings ignore it. Add:

    {
      "git.path": "/absolute/path/to/native/git-dedup"
    }

  3. Run Developer: Reload Window. The Git output channel should log a line such as Using git "2.50.1 (git-dedup 0.1.0)".

With this setting, these editor actions go through git-dedup:

  • Git: Clone, including recursive clones of repositories with submodules.
  • Git: Create Worktree and agent sessions that create worktrees through the editor's Git integration. git-dedup also initializes the new worktree's submodules from the store, which the editor does not do on its own.
  • Submodule updates started from the editor.

Every other Git command is forwarded unchanged, without parsing its arguments.

The integrated terminal and command-line agents still call git from your PATH. Use git-dedup there directly, or follow the agent setup guide.

If you install Node.js through a version manager such as nvm, the npm package path changes when you switch Node versions. Update git.path after switching. Remove the setting to go back to plain Git.

Dev containers and remote workspaces need the store mounted at the same path; see containers, sandboxes, and other machines.

On Windows, use the git-dedup.exe path, not the git-dedup.cmd or git-dedup.ps1 launchers that npm adds to your PATH: editors start git.path directly, without a shell. Visual Studio (the Windows IDE) uses its own bundled Git and is not supported.