Description

On windows, using a company provided PC with security software installed, the gitlens extension (starting with 17.10.1) calls the gitkraken .exe - triggering a security alert each time vscode is restarted (or the extension is reloaded).

Gitkraken is not a tool approved for use in our environment - and up to version 17.10.0, using the following settings did not trigger this warning, while still allowing us to use the gitlens extension for what it was approved.

    "gitlens.ai.enabled": false,
    "gitlens.plusFeatures.enabled": false,

I don't mind having to add another flag with "disable all CLI calls" or similar eventually - but i didn't find a flag to disable this check at this point.

Also related discussion #4923

GitLens Version

17.10.1

VS Code Version

Version: 1.109.4 (system setup)
Commit: c3a26841a84f20dfe0850d0a5a9bd01da4f003ea
Date: 2026-02-16T15:35:57.932Z
Electron: 39.3.0
ElectronBuildId: 13313481
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Git Version

git version 2.51.1.windows.1

Logs, Screenshots, Screen Captures, etc

There's also these logs in vscode (which is obvious if you consider that the exe was blocked).

2026-02-20 10:58:41.258 [info] [2026-02-20 09:58:40.808] S — Failed to get CLI version
Error: Unexpected CLI version output: failed to get version: fork/exec C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\GitKrakenCLI\gk.exe: Access is denied.: fork/exec C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\GitKrakenCLI\gk.exe: Access is denied.


2026-02-20 10:58:44.824 [info] [2026-02-20 09:58:44.410]  — Unexpected output from mcp install command: command failed: fork/exec C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\GitKrakenCLI\gk.exe: Access is denied.: fork/exec C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\GitKrakenCLI\gk.exe: Access is denied.
[2026-02-20 09:58:44.410] GkCliIntegrationProvider.setupMCPCore — Error during MCP installation: Error: Unable to setup the GitKraken MCP. If this issue persists, please try adding the GitKraken MCP to your configuration manually.
Error: Unable to setup the GitKraken MCP. If this issue persists, please try adding the GitKraken MCP to your configuration manually.

Most likely introduced in 59984b1 - which fixed #4989, but introduced the new, in my and our security team's opinion, unwanted behavior.