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glimpse

glimpse

CI Release License: PolyForm Shield 1.0.0

Glimpse is an agent-agnostic, GitHub-style diff viewer and code review tool.

go install github.com/dotbrains/glimpse@latest

It works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any AI coding agent.

What can you do? Description
See your diffs View changes in working area, across commits, branches, tags, etc
AI code review Let your agent review code and leave comments on the diff
Browse project files Explore your repo and comment on any file for AI to resolve
GitHub PRs Pull down a PR, review it locally, push comments back to GitHub
Multiple projects Run it in multiple repos at once, each gets its own port

See your diffs

Run glimpse inside any git repo — your browser opens with a GitHub-style, syntax-highlighted diff.

# everyday use
glimpse                                    # review all uncommitted changes
glimpse HEAD~1                             # review your last commit
glimpse HEAD~3                             # review your last 3 commits

# branch workflows
glimpse main                               # compare current branch against main
glimpse main..feature                      # compare feature branch against main
glimpse main feature                       # same as above, shorthand syntax
glimpse --base main --compare feature      # same as above, explicit flags

# releases and tags
glimpse v1.0.0 v2.0.0                     # compare two releases
glimpse v1.0.0                             # what changed since v1.0.0

# specific commits
glimpse abc1234                            # changes since a specific commit
glimpse abc1234..def5678                   # changes between two commits

The --base/--compare flags use the same terminology as GitHub PRs — base is what you're comparing against, compare is the branch with changes. You can also use range syntax (main..feature) or just pass two positional args (glimpse main feature).

You can leave comments on any diff — working tree changes, branch comparisons, commit ranges. Copy them into your agent with a button and ask it to resolve them, or use the skills below to let your agent auto-review and auto-solve them.

AI code review

Install the skills for your coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.):

# Skills are in .skills/ — copy to your agent's skills directory
cp .skills/*.md ~/.claude/skills/   # Claude Code

Then use the slash commands:

/glimpse-diff

Opens the diff viewer in your browser. Accepts the same refs as the CLI, plus natural language:

/glimpse-diff                          # working tree changes
/glimpse-diff main                     # current branch against main
/glimpse-diff main..feature            # branch diff
/glimpse-diff HEAD~1                   # last commit
/glimpse-diff last 3 commits           # natural language works too

Leave comments on any line — when you're done, run /glimpse-resolve to have your agent fix them.

/glimpse-review

Your agent reviews the diff and leaves inline comments in the viewer. Uses severity tags ([must-fix], [suggestion], [nit], [question]) so you can triage by importance. Supports refs, focus areas, and natural language:

/glimpse-review                             # review working tree changes
/glimpse-review main                        # review what you're merging into main
/glimpse-review main..feature               # review branch diff
/glimpse-review identify security issues    # focus on security issues
/glimpse-review performance in src/lib      # focus on performance in specific dir
/glimpse-review last 3 commits              # natural language works too

/glimpse-resolve

Reads all open comments and makes the requested code changes. Works with both your comments and AI review comments:

/glimpse-resolve                       # resolve all open comments
/glimpse-resolve abc123                # resolve a specific thread by ID

A typical workflow: run /glimpse-review to get AI feedback, check the comments in the browser, then run /glimpse-resolve to apply the fixes.

Browse project files

Run glimpse tree to open a full file tree browser — no diff required. Browse your repo, read files with syntax highlighting, and leave comments on any file or line.

glimpse tree

The tree view supports the same commenting and resolve workflow as the diff viewer. Leave comments on specific lines, files, or folders, then have your agent resolve them.

/glimpse-tree

Opens the file tree browser:

/glimpse-tree

/glimpse-resolve-tree

Reads open comments from the tree browser and makes the requested code changes:

/glimpse-resolve-tree                  # resolve all open comments
/glimpse-resolve-tree abc123           # resolve a specific thread by ID

GitHub PRs

Pass a GitHub PR URL to view and review pull requests locally:

glimpse https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123

This fetches the PR diff, opens it against its base branch, and lets you leave comments in the viewer. Requires the gh CLI installed and authenticated (gh auth login).

You can push your comments (including AI review comments) back to GitHub as PR review comments, and pull existing GitHub comments into the viewer. Both are available from the viewer UI.

The skills work with PR URLs too:

/glimpse-diff https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123
/glimpse-review https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123

Multiple projects

Glimpse supports running multiple projects simultaneously. Each gets its own port automatically:

# Terminal 1 — starts on :5391
cd ~/projects/app && glimpse

# Terminal 2 — starts on :5392
cd ~/projects/api && glimpse

If you run glimpse in a repo that already has a running instance, it opens the existing one instead of starting a new server. Use --new to kill the existing instance and start fresh.

glimpse list               # show all running instances
glimpse list --json        # machine-readable output

Options

--base <ref>       Base ref to compare from (e.g. main, HEAD~3, v1.0.0)
--compare <ref>    Ref to compare against base (default: working tree)
--port <port>      Custom port (default: auto-assigned from 5391)
--no-open          Don't open browser
--dark             Dark mode (default: true, use --dark=false for light)
--unified          Unified view (default: split)
--quiet            Minimal terminal output
--new              Stop existing instance and start fresh

License

PolyForm Shield 1.0.0 © dotbrains

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GitHub-style git diff viewer CLI — browser-based, syntax-highlighted split diffs for uncommitted changes, branches, commits, and ranges.

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