Offline Review

A VS Code extension for local branch diff review and ordinary-workspace code annotation with offline inline comments. Review or annotate code before pushing — no GitHub/remote needed.

[!NOTE] This project is a fork of Gururagavendra/vscode-local-pr-reviewer. It preserves the original MIT license and copyright while publishing the fork's changes independently as Daedie.offline-review. GitHub hosts this fork as an independent repository rather than as a member of the upstream fork network.

Demo

Installation

Quick Install

1. Open VS Code
2. Open the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
3. Search "Offline Review"
4. Click Install

Via Command Palette

Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac) and run:

ext install Daedie.offline-review

Via Marketplace

Install directly from the VS Code Marketplace

From a VSIX File

1. Download the latest .vsix from the GitHub Releases
2. Open VS Code → Extensions → ... menu → Install from VSIX...
3. Select the downloaded file

Features

• Linked Worktree Review - Select any linked Git worktree without changing the open VS Code workspace
• Two Review Modes - Review the selected worktree's uncommitted changes or its active branch against a base
• Branch Diff View - Select a base branch and see all changed files on the active branch
• Inline Comments - Comment on modified lines and on the original side of deleted files
• Resolve/Unresolve - Toggle comment threads as resolved with a single click
• Clean Working Diff - Extension-owned .vscode/offline-reviews/ data is excluded from review results
• Tree Grouping - Files grouped by directory with file count
• Reviewed Checkbox - Track which files you've reviewed
• Comment Count Badge - See comment count per file at a glance
• Multi-diff Editor - Open all changed files in one tabbed diff view
• Suggest a Change - Propose inline code changes with a live diff preview
• Commits Section - View commits between base and compare branches
• Open File - Quick action to open the working copy from the diff view
• Multiple Reviews - Save and switch between review sessions
• Workspace Code Comments - Add persistent comments in ordinary editors without creating or activating a review
• Safe Re-anchoring - Workspace, uncommitted, and branch-review comments follow uniquely moved exact source anchors without fuzzy guesses
• Copilot Integration - Query diff comments with #offlineReviewComments and workspace comments with #offlineCodeComments
• Independent Storage - Reviews keep UUID-backed v2 buckets; workspace comments use one separate v1 file under .vscode/offline-reviews/

Performance

Offline Review comments are stored offline, making Copilot queries 36x faster than fetching from GitHub API:

Getting Started

1. Open a Git repository in VS Code
2. Click the Offline Review icon in the activity bar
3. Choose a linked Git worktree (the workspace checkout is Local and is selected by default on every activation)
4. Choose Uncommitted for that worktree's HEAD vs files, or Active branch for its checked-out branch vs the selected base
5. Browse changed files, open diffs, and add comments

Worktree selection is session-only: Offline Review never switches or opens a VS Code workspace and does not persist the selection. Review metadata and comments remain centralized under the original workspace's .vscode/offline-reviews/ directory.

Workspace code comments

Open a regular file in the original Git workspace, select a line or range, and use the editor gutter's comment action. These threads appear in Offline Review → Code Comments even when no review is active. Linked-worktree files, virtual documents, files outside the workspace, symlink escapes, and .vscode/offline-reviews/ storage files are intentionally rejected.

Workspace threads are stored in .vscode/offline-reviews/workspace-comments.json (schema v1), independently from review comments in .vscode/offline-reviews/reviews/<review UUID>/comments.json (schema v2). Clear Workspace Comments affects only the workspace file; clearing or deleting reviews never affects it. Missing files remain listed.

All three comment modes use the same conservative re-anchoring rule. If the authored text still matches its original range, the thread stays there. Otherwise, one exact line-sequence match in the same file and review side is shown as re-anchored at its effective range. Zero matches are stale, and multiple matches are ambiguous; the extension never chooses a nearest or fuzzy match and does not automatically follow file renames. Authored paths, targets, and ranges remain persisted unchanged while effective placements are computed read-only for the current workspace or review plan.

Use #offlineCodeComments to retrieve structured workspace threads with authored/effective ranges, exact anchors, and missing/stale/ambiguous status. #offlineReviewComments reports the equivalent current-plan status for branch and uncommitted review threads. A separate address-code-comments agent skill can be installed under ~/.agents/skills/address-code-comments/; it lists unresolved threads and safely appends replies/resolves successfully addressed thread UUIDs without touching review buckets. The skill is intentionally installed outside this extension repository and is not included in the VSIX.

Architecture

User
 ├── Activity Bar (Offline Review sidebar)
 │    ├── Branch Selector  — pick a linked worktree, review mode, and base branch
 │    ├── Changed Files    — grouped by directory, reviewed checkbox, comment badge
 │    ├── Review Comments  — persisted review comment buckets
 │    ├── Code Comments    — ordinary-editor threads grouped by file
 │    └── Saved Reviews    — switch between review sessions
 │
 ├── Diff Editor           — review comments via VS Code Comment API
 └── Regular Editor        — workspace code comments via a separate controller

Copilot Chat
 ├── #offlineReviewComments  — query review/diff comments
 └── #offlineCodeComments    — query independent workspace comments

Core Services
 ├── GitService       — linked worktree selection, branch list, file diffs, commit log
 ├── CommentController — create, edit, delete, resolve threads
 ├── LocalPrManager   — review CRUD, reviewed-file state
 └── StorageService   — read/write UUID-isolated JSON under .vscode/offline-reviews/

Key modules

Development

npm ci
npm run check

npm run check type-checks and lints the canonical TypeScript, performs a clean rebuild of out/, and runs the integration tests. Generated JavaScript, declarations, and source maps should only be updated through the build.