Codex Reviewer

A companion extension for the official Codex VS Code extension (openai.chatgpt) that brings GitHub PR-style review comments to your editor. Comment on any line or selection — in a diff view or a regular file — and the notes stay staged inside VS Code. When the batch is ready, one click attaches it to the Codex chat composer as a single file chip that travels with your next prompt. Delete the chip and the reviews stay behind.

中文介绍

How it works

1. Hover a line's gutter and click +, or select a range and press Ctrl+Alt+C (Cmd+Alt+C on macOS). Write as many notes as you like; the status bar keeps count.
2. Click the status bar item (or the send button in a diff editor's title bar). The extension writes the staged notes to a mirror file and attaches it to the Codex composer through the Codex extension's own chatgpt.addFileToThread command.
3. Send a message in Codex as usual — the chip's content goes with it. Then run Codex Reviewer: Clear Staged Reviews to start a fresh round.

The chip points to a real file (default .codex/pending-reviews.md in your workspace) that the extension rewrites on every change, so notes added after attaching are still current when you hit send.

What the agent receives

Each note becomes one objective citation: path, line range, side (the old side of a diff carries the commit SHA, the new side carries HEAD), the verbatim code, and your note text. No instructions are attached — whether the agent should explain the code or change it stays entirely up to your conversation.

## [ref [#1](https://github.com/NihilDigit/codex-reviewer/issues/1)] src/foo.ts:40-42

working tree (HEAD `1a2b3c4d5e`)

​```typescript
const a = 1;
const b = 2;
return a + b;
​```

> why is `b` added here?

Requirements

• VS Code ≥ 1.96
• The official Codex extension (openai.chatgpt), installed and signed in

Install

npm install
npm run compile   # esbuild → out/extension.js

Then package with npx vsce package and install via code --install-extension, or copy package.json, out/, and README.md into ~/.vscode/extensions/NihilDigit.codex-reviewer-0.2.0/. For development, open this folder and press F5, or run code --extensionDevelopmentPath=<this repo> <a workspace>.

Usage

Command palette: Codex Reviewer: Clear Staged Reviews and Codex Reviewer: Open Pending Reviews File.

Why the shortcut exists: the gutter + belongs to VS Code core. When several comment providers (e.g. GitHub Pull Requests) match the same line it shows a provider picker, and extensions cannot listen for modifier-key clicks on it. Ctrl+Alt+C creates the thread directly on this extension's own controller and skips the picker. Rebind it in Keyboard Shortcuts.

Settings

• codexReviewer.pendingFile (default .codex/pending-reviews.md): workspace-relative path of the reviews file.
• codexReviewer.gitExclude (default true): on activation, adds the reviews file to the repository's .git/info/exclude so git status stays clean. Handles worktree/submodule .git pointers; skipped outside git repositories.

Known limitations

• Deleted lines can't be commented in inline diff mode. They are rendered as virtual lines with no comment anchor — a VS Code platform limitation. Use the diff editor's … menu → Toggle Inline View, and comment on the left (old) file in side-by-side mode; the note is captured as old side @ commit <sha> with the removed code included.
• The comment widget is not styleable. Its size is fixed by VS Code's core comment component, and with word wrap the gutter + follows the mouse onto every visual row of a wrapped line. Clicking any of them anchors the same logical line.
• The chip shows the file name, not the review count — the status bar has the count.
• The Codex extension exposes no "message sent" event, so clearing staged reviews after sending is a manual step.
• Comment threads live in memory: reloading the window resets threads and the staged set (the reviews file keeps its last content and is rewritten on the next change).
• The terminal codex TUI has no composable input API; only the official extension's chat composer is supported.

License

MIT © NihilDigit