Agents produce branches and working-tree changes; the operator reviews them before anything merges. The source-control rail is that review surface.

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See what changed

Select the repository (the picker scans under the editor root and remembers recents). The Changes panel groups staged, unstaged, untracked, and conflicted files — click any file for a side-by-side Monaco diff:
Source control rail with a side-by-side diff open

Reviewing a working-tree change: staged file, lane-colored history, side-by-side diff

Stage, unstage, and discard per file or per group (discard confirms — it deletes untracked files). The diff toolbar flips between side-by-side and inline.

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Review a branch without touching your worktree

An agent worked on feat/retry-policy? Expand Branches and use Compare on the branch row: Desk computes the merge base and lists every file the branch changes, opening each as a read-only range diff — your working tree never moves. This is the fastest honest answer to “what did the agent actually do on that branch”. Checkout, create-from, and delete live on the same rows; remote branches check out as tracking branches. Worktrees list alongside — open any worktree as the active repository with one click.

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Walk the history

The History panel draws a lane-colored commit graph with branch, tag, and HEAD markers. Expand a commit to see its files and open per-file diffs. The context menu checks out or reverts a commit, creates a branch at it, copies the SHA, or opens it on GitHub. Per-file history (from the editor’s context menu) follows renames.

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Commit and sync

Write the message in the commit box (Ctrl+Enter commits; amend with an empty message keeps the previous one). If nothing is staged, Desk offers to commit all tracked changes. Then Push — or Publish if the branch has no upstream yet. Pull is fast-forward-only, so a diverged branch never silently merges. Every mutation refreshes the editor’s git decorations immediately — badges, directory dots, and gutter marks stay truthful across subsystems.

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Review checklist for agent branches

  1. Compare the branch against the merge base — full file list, no checkout.
  2. Open the diffs that matter; check the tests the agent claims it added.
  3. Walk history for surprise commits (the graph shows everything, not just the branch tip).
  4. Merge through your normal flow — Desk shows GitHub PR context for the current branch when gh is authenticated.
The full feature reference is in Git and GitHub operations.