P4 Review Explorer

Browse and interact with P4 Code Reviews (a.k.a) Perforce Swarm code reviews without leaving Visual Studio Code.

About

P4 Review Explorer brings your entire Swarm review workflow into the IDE. Instead of constantly switching to the browser to check on reviews, read comments, and post replies, you get a dedicated panel in the Activity Bar that shows your open reviews in real time — so you can browse changed files, open side-by-side diffs, post inline comments, and reply to feedback all without leaving your editor.

Features

Review Voting

Approve or reject a review without leaving the IDE. Hover over any review node to reveal two inline icon buttons:

• 👍 Approve (green) — submits an "up" vote to Swarm
• 👎 Reject (red) — submits a "down" vote to Swarm

The button matching the review's current status is hidden automatically (no approving an already-approved review). Both actions are also available in the right-click context menu. Works in both My Reviews and Reviewing panels. A toast notification confirms the action and the list refreshes immediately.

Dedicated Review Explorer

A new panel in the Activity Bar lists all your reviews in two sections:

• My Reviews — reviews you authored
• Reviewing — reviews where you are listed as a reviewer

Each review shows its ID, description, and status. Click the expand arrow to list every file in that review directly below it.

Activity Bar Badge

A live badge on the P4 Review Explorer icon shows the total number of active reviews (My Reviews + Reviewing) so you always know how much review work is waiting, even when the panel is closed.

Status Filter

Click the funnel icon in the Explorer toolbar to filter reviews by status. Choose any combination of:

open · needsReview · needsRevision · approved · rejected · closed · archived

Your filter choice is remembered per workspace.

File Tree in Reviews

Expand any review in the sidebar to see the full list of changed files sourced from the review's changelists. Hover over any file that has comments to see a comment balloon icon on the right — the tooltip shows the exact count (1–9, then 9+). Click it to:

• Open the Comments panel instantly, pre-loaded with only that file's threads
• Any previously shown threads are cleared first so you see only what's relevant

Click the file name itself to open the diff view.

Comments Panel — Always Up to Date

The native VSCode Comments panel always reflects the currently active file. Switching to a new file automatically clears any threads from the previous file so you never see stale comments from a different review. Clicking a thread navigates directly to the relevant line in the diff view.

Side-by-Side Diff View

Clicking a file opens VSCode's built-in diff editor with:

• Left panel — HEAD revision (what is currently in the depot)
• Right panel — shelved revision (what the review proposes)

This lets you review changes directly in your IDE with full syntax highlighting and navigation. Right-click anywhere in the diff to access two actions:

• Open File to Edit — opens the local workspace copy of the file in a regular editor tab so you can make changes
• Add P4 Review Comment — posts an inline line comment to Swarm

Inline Comments on Diff Lines

Right-click any line in the diff editor and choose Add P4 Review Comment. A gutter balloon opens at that line — type your comment and hit Submit. The comment is posted to Swarm and the balloon stays open showing your text. Click 🗑 Discard to cancel without posting.

Gutter Comment Balloons

Open any file that is part of an active review and balloon icons appear in the editor gutter on every line that has comments — visible in both regular editors and diff views. Click a balloon to expand the thread and reply directly from the IDE.

Comments Panel Integration

The native VSCode Comments panel is fully integrated with P4 Review threads:

• Sidebar balloon click → opens Comments panel showing only that file's comments
• Comments panel thread click → if the diff is not already open, automatically opens it and scrolls to the commented line
• Use the Show P4 Comments button in the diff editor title bar to reload threads for the current diff

Reply Without Leaving the IDE

Click a comment balloon to expand the thread as a native VSCode comment panel. Hit Reply, type your response, and it is posted directly to Swarm.

Auto-Refresh

Reviews and annotations refresh automatically in the background at a configurable interval so you are never looking at stale data.

Requirements

• A Perforce Swarm instance (API v9, v10, or v11 — the version is detected automatically at runtime)
• p4 CLI installed and on $PATH (used for file resolution and ticket-based authentication)
• A valid Perforce account with access to the reviews you want to see

Configure Settings

Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for P4 Review, or add the following to your settings.json:

{
  // Required — base URL of your Swarm server
  "p4review.swarmUrl": "https://swarm.example.com",

  // Required — your Perforce username
  "p4review.username": "philipegouveia",

  // Optional — P4PORT used to locate your ticket in ~/.p4tickets
  // When set, no password prompt is needed if a valid ticket exists
  "p4review.p4port": "ssl:perforce:1666",

  // Optional — Swarm API token (best for SSO environments — bypasses password auth entirely)
  "p4review.apiToken": "your-swarm-api-token",

  // Optional — which statuses to show on first launch
  "p4review.defaultStatusFilter": ["open", "needsReview", "needsRevision"],

  // Optional — background refresh interval in seconds (minimum 30)
  "p4review.pollIntervalSeconds": 120
}

Authentication

On first launch the extension resolves credentials in this order:

After credentials are resolved, the extension establishes a Swarm session cookie (SWARM_SESSION) via POST /api/v9/login. All subsequent requests use this cookie instead of Basic auth, which is more SSO-friendly. On a 401 (expired session), the extension silently refreshes the ticket before prompting you to re-enter credentials.

To reset your credentials at any time, run P4 Review Explorer: Login / Configure Credentials from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) or click the sign-in icon in the explorer toolbar.

Commands

All commands are available from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) under the prefix P4 Review Explorer:

Settings Reference

Known Limitations

• File path resolution uses three strategies in order: p4 where → p4 fstat clientFile → workspace filename scan. Files not present in the active client view may not resolve.
• Gutter annotations in diff views match by filename. If multiple files share the same name across depot streams, the first match wins.
• Inline comments require Swarm API v11. The right-click menu entry is hidden on v9/v10 servers.

Privacy & Security

• Your password or API token, if entered, is stored exclusively in VSCode Secret Storage (OS keychain-backed). It is never written to disk in plain text or sent anywhere other than your configured Swarm server.
• No telemetry is collected by this extension.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.