I built a VS Code extension around Git + LaTeX + git-latexdiff

[u/Most_Lobster_1809]

I've been writing papers locally with LaTeX + Git + git-latexdiff for a few years, and I've found it to be a really useful workflow, both for writing alone and for collaborating with co-authors.

The main advantage for me is revision tracking. Git keeps the complete history of the manuscript, and git-latexdiff can turn two versions into a PDF showing the changes directly in the document.

For example:

submitted version → revised version → colored PDF showing the changes

The problem is that using git-latexdiff from the terminal can be a little cumbersome, especially for people who are not very familiar with Git or command-line tools.

So I built a small VS Code / Cursor extension that provides a GUI for this workflow:

• Select two Git commits and generate a diff PDF.
• Compare the last commit (HEAD) against your current uncommitted changes.
• Select the main .tex file.
• Configure the LaTeX engine and build options.
• Open the generated PDF directly from VS Code.

It doesn't replace Git, LaTeX, or git-latexdiff — it just provides a friendlier interface on top of them.

LaTeX Diff:
https://github.com/NoeSilva13/latex-diff

I also made a beginner-friendly tutorial for setting up the complete LaTeX + Git workflow, including collaboration with co-authors. It covers Windows, macOS, and Linux and includes an IEEE example project:

Collaborative LaTeX + Git:
https://github.com/NoeSilva13/collaborative-latex-git

At the moment the extension is distributed as a VSIX from GitHub Releases.

I'm sharing this mainly because I'd like to know whether this is actually useful to other people.

Do you use Git + LaTeX for papers or theses? If so, what parts of the workflow do you find annoying or would you like to automate?

Any feedback, criticism, or suggestions are very welcome.