diff --git a/src/ui/scm/detail.rs b/src/ui/scm/detail.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ea6c972a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ui/scm/detail.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+//! One commit, in the panel's own body.
+//!
+//! Replacing the body rather than opening a third kind of container: the
+//! panel already knows how to draw a list of changed files, and the only
+//! things a commit adds above it are its message and who wrote it. The file
+//! rows are the same rows, minus the buttons — nothing here should be able to
+//! drift from what the working tree shows.
+//!
+//! The patch itself still goes to the full-screen overlay. 260px is not a
+//! place to read a diff.
+
+use gpui::{AnyElement, Context};
+
+use crate::ui::app::Tty7App;
+use crate::ui::scm::state::CommitDetailView;
+
+impl Tty7App {
+    /// The commit detail body, shown in place of the file groups.
+    pub(crate) fn render_commit_detail(
+        &mut self,
+        _detail: &CommitDetailView,
+        _window: &mut gpui::Window,
+        _cx: &mut Context<Self>,
+    ) -> Option<AnyElement> {
+        None
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/ui/scm/graph.rs b/src/ui/scm/graph.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..93384dfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ui/scm/graph.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+//! The history section at the foot of the panel.
+//!
+//! Its job is shape, not text. 260px leaves room for roughly 26 characters
+//! beside the lanes, and this repository's commit subjects run to a median of
+//! 64 — so what a reader gets here is where the branches are, where they
+//! merged, which refs sit where, and how recently anything moved. Reading a
+//! message is the commit detail view's job, one click away.
+//!
+//! That is also VS Code's own reading of a sidebar graph, and it is why the
+//! conventional-commit prefix is lifted out into a chip rather than left to
+//! eat half the line.
+
+use gpui::{AnyElement, Context};
+
+use crate::ui::app::Tty7App;
+use crate::ui::scm::state::RepoKey;
+
+impl Tty7App {
+    /// The history section, when it is expanded and has something to draw.
+    ///
+    /// Sits below the file list as its own scroll region rather than at the
+    /// end of one: the graph pages, and sharing a scroller would mean scrolling
+    /// back past hundreds of commits to reach the message box.
+    pub(crate) fn render_graph_section(
+        &mut self,
+        _repo: &RepoKey,
+        _window: &mut gpui::Window,
+        _cx: &mut Context<Self>,
+    ) -> Option<AnyElement> {
+        None
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/ui/scm/mod.rs b/src/ui/scm/mod.rs
index fa2944c1..ff6da7c7 100644
--- a/src/ui/scm/mod.rs
+++ b/src/ui/scm/mod.rs
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 // `relative_time` has no row to date yet, and `status_rank` is the file tree's
 // to use. Both allows come off with the step that wires them up.
 pub(crate) mod actions;
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub(crate) mod detail;
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub(crate) mod graph;
 pub(crate) mod panel;
 #[allow(dead_code)]
 pub(crate) mod path;
diff --git a/src/ui/scm/panel.rs b/src/ui/scm/panel.rs
index 56b0eecf..b1c331a0 100644
--- a/src/ui/scm/panel.rs
+++ b/src/ui/scm/panel.rs
@@ -169,16 +169,23 @@ impl Tty7App {
         pinned.extend(naming);
         pinned.push(commit);
         pinned.push(buttons);
-        let body = if status.is_clean() {
-            self.panel_empty(
+        // A commit's detail replaces the working tree's, so the two can never
+        // be on screen claiming to be the same thing.
+        let detail = self.scm.detail.clone();
+        let body = match detail
+            .as_ref()
+            .and_then(|d| self.render_commit_detail(d, window, cx))
+        {
+            Some(body) => body,
+            None if status.is_clean() => self.panel_empty(
                 t(L10nKey::PanelNoChanges),
                 Some(t(L10nKey::PanelNoChangesHint)),
                 cx,
-            )
-        } else {
-            self.scm_groups(&repo, &status, cx)
+            ),
+            None => self.scm_groups(&repo, &status, cx),
         };
-        self.scm_shell_with(title, pinned, body)
+        let history = self.render_graph_section(&repo, window, cx);
+        self.scm_shell_full(title, pinned, body, history)
     }
 
     /// The repository line: which branch, how far from its upstream, and one
@@ -762,6 +769,17 @@ impl Tty7App {
         title: AnyElement,
         pinned: Vec<AnyElement>,
         body: AnyElement,
+    ) -> AnyElement {
+        self.scm_shell_full(title, pinned, body, None)
+    }
+
+    /// …and `footer` is the history section, which scrolls on its own.
+    fn scm_shell_full(
+        &self,
+        title: AnyElement,
+        pinned: Vec<AnyElement>,
+        body: AnyElement,
+        footer: Option<AnyElement>,
     ) -> AnyElement {
         let scroller = div()
             .id("panel-scm-body")
@@ -780,6 +798,7 @@ impl Tty7App {
                 scroller,
                 &self.scm.scroll,
             ))
+            .children(footer)
             .into_any_element()
     }
 
diff --git a/src/ui/scm/state.rs b/src/ui/scm/state.rs
index ac11544c..96880939 100644
--- a/src/ui/scm/state.rs
+++ b/src/ui/scm/state.rs
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@ pub(crate) struct GraphState {
 /// touched. A file-level diff is not shown here — that opens the full-screen
 /// overlay, because 260px cannot render a diff and pretending otherwise would
 /// mean inventing a third kind of container.
+#[derive(Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Debug)]
 pub(crate) struct CommitDetailView {
     pub(crate) repo: RepoKey,
     pub(crate) oid: String,