Prism - PR Safety Mentor

Your AI-powered safety net for pull requests. Catch issues before they reach code review.

Prism is a local-first VS Code extension that helps developers understand the impact of their changes before pushing code. Think of it as a friendly mentor that reviews your PR and gives you actionable feedback.

Live Link

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=prism-ai.prism-ai

DEMO

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d8cc9fe6-fb43-4d01-93ea-63b6b73e72a4

✨ Features

🚨 Risk Detection

Identifies potential issues before they become problems:

• Secrets Detection - Catches API keys, tokens, and credentials before they leak
• Missing Test Coverage - Warns when code changes lack corresponding tests
• CI/CD Changes - Flags modifications to build pipelines that need extra care
• Large PRs - Suggests splitting oversized pull requests
• Environment Files - Prevents accidental commits of .env files

🔍 Smart PR Analysis

Automatically analyzes your git changes and categorizes files by type (Frontend, Tests, CI/CD, Config, Documentation).

🛡️ Protected Branch Rescue

Accidentally coding on main or master? Prism detects this and offers to safely move your changes to a new feature branch.

✅ Smart Checklist

Get a personalized pre-push checklist based on your changes:

• Required - Must-do items before pushing
• Recommended - Best practices for your specific changes
• Optional - Nice-to-have improvements

🤖 AI-Powered Explanations

Connect your local Ollama instance for friendly, educational explanations of detected issues. No data leaves your machine.

🚀 Getting Started

Installation

1. Install from VS Code Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=prism-ai.prism-ai
2. Or search for "Prism" in VS Code Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X)

Usage

Method 1: Sidebar (Recommended)

1. Click the Prism icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar)
2. Optionally specify a target branch (defaults to main)
3. Click "🔍 Analyze My PR"

Method 2: Command Palette

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Type "Prism: Analyze My PR"
3. Press Enter

First-Time Setup

No configuration needed! Prism works out of the box. However, you can customize:

Settings (Cmd+, → Search "Prism"):

• prism.defaultTargetBranch - Default branch to compare against (e.g., develop)
• prism.protectedBranches - Branches that trigger rescue prompts (default: main, master)
• prism.ollamaModel - AI model for explanations (default: llama3.2:3b)

🤖 Optional: Enable AI Explanations

Want friendly AI explanations of your PR risks? Install Ollama:

# Install Ollama (macOS/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh

# Pull a model
ollama pull llama3.2:3b

# Start Ollama (runs in background)
ollama serve

That's it! Prism will automatically detect Ollama and provide AI-powered insights.

Privacy Note: All AI processing happens locally on your machine. No code or data is sent to external servers.

📋 Requirements

• VS Code 1.85.0 or higher
• Git repository with at least one commit
• Node.js (for pre-flight checks, optional)

🎯 Use Cases

For Junior Developers

• Learn what makes a good PR before submitting
• Understand why certain changes are risky
• Build good habits with guided checklists

For Teams

• Reduce code review cycles by catching issues early
• Standardize PR quality across the team
• Prevent common mistakes (leaked secrets, missing tests)

For Solo Developers

• Self-review before pushing
• Catch mistakes when working late/tired
• Maintain code quality without a team

🔒 Privacy & Security

• 100% Local - All analysis happens on your machine
• No Telemetry - We don't collect any data
• No Network Calls - Except optional Ollama (also local)
• Open Source - Audit the code yourself

🐛 Troubleshooting

"No changes found"

• Make sure you've committed your changes
• Verify you're on a feature branch (not main/master)
• Check that your branch has diverged from the target branch

"Analysis failed"

• Ensure you're in a git repository
• Check that main or master branch exists
• Try specifying a target branch manually

Pre-flight checks not running

• Verify CI/CD config files exist (.github/workflows/*.yml, etc.)
• Ensure required tools (npm, yarn, etc.) are installed
• Check that commands are valid for your local environment

💬 Feedback & Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Feature Requests: GitHub Discussions
• Questions: Open an issue with the "question" label

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with ❤️ for developers who want to ship better code.

⭐ Star us on GitHub | 📦 View on Marketplace