VS Code git extension
GitLens is the most popular git extension for VS Code — blame annotations, history exploration, and rich diff views inside the editor.
GitLens is unbeatable at answering 'who changed this line and why' — inline blame, file history, and commit graphs are polished to a level no other git tool in VS Code matches.
GitLens looks backwards at git history; it has no concept of Jira, tickets, or workflow policy. It won't create your branch from a ticket, move a Jira card, or generate your standup — it's an inspection tool, not a workflow automation tool.
This is really the whole reason Jitly exists — it's not trying to replace GitLens at what GitLens is good at. Jitly's job is narrower and more specific: jitly start ABC-123 creates your branch and moves the Jira ticket to In Progress in one shot, jitly done commits, pushes, and updates the status to whatever your team's workflow has, fetched live so it never gets out of sync with how your Jira is actually configured.
And it's not just a CLI anymore — the Jitly VS Code extension does the same job visually: a sidebar with your Jira tickets, one-click start, pause work with a WIP push, done with live status transitions, and a one-click standup generator. Same project config and policies as the CLI, so a team can mix both.
Mainly basically every VS Code developer — it complements rather than competes with ticket-workflow tooling. If that's not you, this comparison probably isn't that relevant to your day — GitLens and Jitly solve different problems most of the time.
pip install jitly) or a VS Code extension. They're rarely a straight either/or choice — most teams comparing them are really deciding what to combine with what they already use.