diffs-pane

Live Git and jj diffs for humans and coding agents.

dp watches a working tree, prints an authenticated localhost URL, and keeps the browser view current as files change. Humans can leave inline comments; agents read them with dp reviews and clear addressed feedback with dp resolve.

• One terminal-independent CLI
• One per-user daemon and one shared session per working tree
• Git and jj support (jj takes precedence in colocated repositories)
• React UI powered by @pierre/diffs and @pierre/trees
• Node.js 24+
• pnpm 11.3+

Installation

pnpm add --global diffs-pane

Or build the repository locally:

git clone https://github.com/itsmingjie/diffs-pane.git
cd diffs-pane
pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm link --global

Quick start

From any Git or jj working tree:

dp watch
# http://127.0.0.1:53707/s/<capability-token>/

Open the URL once. The viewer updates automatically; there is no need to rerun dp after edits. The daemon uses port 34337 unless another process has claimed it.

Choose a starting diff source when needed:

dp watch branch
dp watch unstaged
dp watch turn

Human-agent review loop

1. The agent runs dp watch and shares the URL.

2. The human selects lines and leaves comments in the viewer.

3. The agent reads feedback:

   dp reviews
   # or structured output with comment ids and deep links
   dp reviews --json

4. The agent fixes the code and resolves only the comments it addressed:

   dp resolve <comment-id> [<comment-id>...]

Review export is non-destructive and repeatable. Comments re-anchor when their saved text has one unambiguous match; otherwise they remain available as outdated comments with the original diff excerpt.

Commands

Command	Purpose
dp watch [branch|unstaged|turn]	Start or reuse a session and print its URL
dp reviews [--json]	Export review comments for the current working tree
dp resolve <id>...	Delete addressed review comments
dp resolve --all	Delete every review comment for the working tree
dp turn start ...	Capture the baseline for the Last turn diff
dp turn end ...	Finish an agent turn
dp status [--json]	List daemon and session state
dp stop [options]	Release a session lease

Watch options

dp watch [branch|unstaged|turn] \
  [--no-watch] \
  [--root <path>] \
  [--base <revision>] \
  [--owner <integration-name>]

The filter defaults to branch; bare dp is equivalent to dp watch branch. --no-watch opens a static session without filesystem updates. --root defaults to the current directory. --base overrides the branch base. --owner creates an opaque integration lease; a session remains alive until its final owner releases it.

Turn tracking

dp turn start --session <session-id> --turn <turn-id> --agent <name>
# make changes
dp turn end --session <session-id> --turn <turn-id>

turn start records a read-only working-tree baseline. Duplicate starts for the same turn are idempotent. The viewer’s Last turn source compares the current working tree with that baseline, including files that were already dirty.

Stopping sessions

dp stop                              # current working tree
dp stop --root /path/to/repository
dp stop --owner <name> --all         # release one integration everywhere
dp stop --all                        # stop every session

The daemon exits after its final session stops.

Viewer

• Live patch refresh over SSE
• Split and unified layouts, line wrapping, syntax highlighting, and sticky per-file headers
• Dense, searchable file tree with status and line statistics
• Expandable Diff Stats panel with file, addition, deletion, and line totals
• Collapsible desktop sidebar and an overlay sidebar for narrow coding panes
• Automatic unified layout below 768px, with Split restored on wider panes
• Comments grouped by file with direct line navigation
• Per-file collapsing and line-range permalinks
• Geist interface, Commit Mono code, and the same Pierre light/dark palette used by DiffsHub

Selecting lines updates the URL:

<session-url>#target=f:<path>&start=A<line>[&end=A<line>]

A addresses the additions side and D the deletions side. Live dp reviews --json output includes the corresponding URL for each comment.

Diff sources

Source	Git	jj
Branch	Merge base of HEAD and the base revision through the full index and working tree, including untracked files	Pushed branch base through the current working copy; falls back to the nearest local bookmark, then fork_point(trunk() | @)
Unstaged	Working tree versus index, including untracked-but-unignored files	Current working-copy change (@), labeled Working copy
Last turn	Snapshot tree captured by dp turn start versus the current working tree	Working-copy commit captured at turn start versus current @

Additions, deletions, renames, mode changes, binary files, unusual paths, and empty diffs are supported. diffs-pane never mutates the index or working tree and never runs automatic jj recovery commands.

Agent integration

The packaged Agent Skill teaches coding harnesses the complete watch → review → fix → resolve workflow.

A ready-to-use Pi lifecycle extension is available at extension/pi/dp-turn.ts.

Security

• The daemon binds only to 127.0.0.1 and rejects non-loopback peers, unexpected Host headers, cross-origin mutations, and oversized requests.
• Browser URLs contain unguessable per-session capability tokens.
• CLI control requests use a separate owner-only secret.
• Sessions, turn baselines, and reviews are written atomically to the platform user-state directory, never to the reviewed repository.

Treat a session URL like a password while its session is active.

Development

pnpm run dev:sample       # build and open a disposable real Git sample
pnpm run dev:sample:stop  # stop its lease and remove the sample
pnpm run typecheck
pnpm run lint
pnpm run format
pnpm test
pnpm run build

The sample lives at .tmp/sample-repo by default and exercises the real CLI, daemon, Git backend, watcher, SSE stream, and UI. Edit its files to test live refresh, or rerun pnpm run dev:sample to rebuild and reset it. Set DIFFS_PANE_SAMPLE_ROOT=/absolute/path to use another location; the script refuses to replace directories it did not create.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
DIFFS_PANE_STATE_DIR	Override the platform user-state directory
DIFFS_PANE_MAX_PATCH_BYTES	Set the patch-size limit (default: 20 MB)
DIFFS_PANE_SAMPLE_ROOT	Override the disposable development sample path

License

Apache-2.0. The bundled Geist and Commit Mono fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License; Radix Icons is MIT-licensed.