revdiff

README

revdiff

Lightweight TUI for reviewing git diffs with inline annotations. Outputs structured annotations to stdout on quit, making it easy to pipe results into AI agents, scripts, or other tools.

Built for a specific use case: reviewing code changes without leaving a terminal-based AI coding session (e.g., Claude Code). Just enough UI to navigate a full-file diff, annotate specific lines, and return the results to the calling process - no more, no less.

Features

• Structured annotation output to stdout - pipe into AI agents, scripts, or other tools
• Full-file diff view with syntax highlighting
• Annotate any line in the diff (added, removed, or context) plus file-level notes
• Two-pane TUI: file tree (left) + colorized diff viewport (right)
• Hunk navigation to jump between change groups
• Filter file tree to show only annotated files
• Fully customizable colors via environment variables, CLI flags, or config file

Requirements

• git (used to generate diffs)

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew install umputun/apps/revdiff

Go install:

go install github.com/umputun/revdiff/cmd/revdiff@latest

Binary releases: download from GitHub Releases (deb, rpm, archives for linux/darwin amd64/arm64).

Usage

revdiff [OPTIONS] [ref]

Options

Option	Description	Default
ref	Git ref to diff against	uncommitted changes
--staged	Show staged changes, env: REVDIFF_STAGED	false
--tree-width	File tree panel width in units (1-10), env: REVDIFF_TREE_WIDTH	2
--tab-width	Number of spaces per tab character, env: REVDIFF_TAB_WIDTH	4
--no-colors	Disable all colors including syntax highlighting, env: REVDIFF_NO_COLORS	false
--no-status-bar	Hide the status bar, env: REVDIFF_NO_STATUS_BAR	false
--chroma-style	Chroma color theme for syntax highlighting, env: REVDIFF_CHROMA_STYLE	monokai
-o, --output	Write annotations to file instead of stdout, env: REVDIFF_OUTPUT
--config	Path to config file, env: REVDIFF_CONFIG	~/.config/revdiff/config
--dump-config	Print default config to stdout and exit
-V, --version	Show version info

Config File

All options can be set in a config file at ~/.config/revdiff/config (INI format). CLI flags and environment variables override config file values.

Generate a default config file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/revdiff
revdiff --dump-config > ~/.config/revdiff/config

Then uncomment and edit the values you want to change.

Color customization flags (click to expand)

All color options accept hex values (#rrggbb) and have corresponding REVDIFF_COLOR_* env vars.

Option	Description	Default
--color-accent	Active pane borders and directory names	#5f87ff
--color-border	Inactive pane borders	#585858
--color-normal	File entries and context lines	#d0d0d0
--color-muted	Divider lines and status bar	#6c6c6c
--color-selected-fg	Selected file text	#ffffaf
--color-selected-bg	Selected file background	#303030
--color-annotation	Annotation text and markers	#ffd700
--color-cursor-fg	Cursor indicator color	terminal default
--color-cursor-bg	Cursor indicator background	terminal default
--color-add-fg	Added line text	#87d787
--color-add-bg	Added line background	#022800
--color-remove-fg	Removed line text	#ff8787
--color-remove-bg	Removed line background	#3D0100
--color-tree-bg	File tree pane background	terminal default
--color-diff-bg	Diff pane background	terminal default
--color-status-fg	Status bar foreground	same as muted
--color-status-bg	Status bar background	terminal default

Available chroma styles (click to expand)

Dark themes: aura-theme-dark, aura-theme-dark-soft, base16-snazzy, catppuccin-frappe, catppuccin-macchiato, catppuccin-mocha, doom-one, doom-one2, dracula, evergarden, fruity, github-dark, gruvbox, hrdark, monokai (default), modus-vivendi, native, nord, nordic, onedark, paraiso-dark, rose-pine, rose-pine-moon, rrt, solarized-dark, solarized-dark256, tokyonight-moon, tokyonight-night, tokyonight-storm, vim, vulcan, witchhazel, xcode-dark

Light themes: autumn, borland, catppuccin-latte, colorful, emacs, friendly, github, gruvbox-light, igor, lovelace, manni, modus-operandi, monokailight, murphy, paraiso-light, pastie, perldoc, pygments, rainbow_dash, rose-pine-dawn, solarized-light, tango, tokyonight-day, trac, vs, xcode

Other: RPGLE, abap, algol, algol_nu, arduino, ashen, average, bw, hr_high_contrast, onesenterprise, swapoff

Examples

# review uncommitted changes
revdiff

# review changes against a branch
revdiff main

# review staged changes
revdiff --staged

# review last commit
revdiff HEAD~1

Key Bindings

Navigation:

Key	Action
j/k or up/down	Navigate files (tree) / scroll diff (diff pane)
h/l	Switch between file tree and diff pane
left/right	Horizontal scroll in diff pane
Tab	Switch between file tree and diff pane
PgDown/PgUp	Page scroll in file tree and diff pane
Ctrl+d/Ctrl+u	Page scroll in file tree and diff pane
Home/End	Jump to first/last item
Enter	Switch to diff pane (tree) / start annotation (diff pane)
n/p	Next/previous changed file
[ / ]	Jump to previous/next change hunk in diff

Annotations:

Key	Action
a or Enter (diff pane)	Annotate current diff line
A	Add file-level annotation (stored at top of diff)
d	Delete annotation under cursor
Esc	Cancel annotation input

View:

Key	Action
f	Toggle filter: all files / annotated only (shown when annotations exist)
q	Quit, output annotations to stdout

Output Format

## handler.go (file-level)
consider splitting this file into smaller modules

## handler.go:43 (+)
use errors.Is() instead of direct comparison

## store.go:18 (-)
don't remove this validation

Claude Code Plugin

revdiff ships with a Claude Code plugin for interactive code review directly from a Claude session. The plugin launches revdiff as a terminal overlay, captures annotations, and feeds them back to Claude for processing.

The plugin requires one of the following terminals since Claude Code itself cannot display interactive TUI applications — the overlay runs revdiff in a separate terminal layer on top of the current session:

Terminal	Overlay method	Detection
tmux	display-popup (blocks until quit)	$TMUX env var
kitty	kitty @ launch --type=overlay	$KITTY_LISTEN_ON env var
wezterm	wezterm cli split-pane	$WEZTERM_PANE env var

Priority: tmux → kitty → wezterm (first detected wins). If none are available, the plugin exits with an error.

Install:

# add marketplace and install
/plugin marketplace add umputun/revdiff
/plugin install revdiff@umputun-revdiff

Use: /revdiff [ref] — opens a review session. Annotate the diff, quit, and Claude will address each annotation.

The plugin supports the full review loop: annotate → plan → fix → re-review until no more annotations remain.

Integration with Other Tools

The structured stdout output works with any tool that can read text:

# capture annotations for processing
annotations=$(revdiff main)
if [ -n "$annotations" ]; then
  echo "$annotations" | your-tool
fi

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.