InReview

InReview is a VS Code extension for reviewing local Jujutsu (jj) changes without opening a pull request.

Select a contiguous range of jj changes, inspect their combined or per-change diffs in VS Code, and leave comments on the new side of the diff. A native local MCP bridge lets GitHub Copilot CLI read those comments, reply to them, and resolve them after it updates the code.

InReview is an experimental local build. It is not published to the VS Code Marketplace.

Features

• Review a historical contiguous change range, a revset, or the latest X changes ending at any recorded jj workspace head.

• Switch between one combined stack diff and per-change diffs.

• Use VS Code's native diff editor, syntax highlighting, themes, and Comments API.

• Add comments to any line on the stored new side of a changed text file, or to the whole file.

• Review added, modified, deleted, renamed, copied, binary, and symbolic-link entries.

• Refresh a review after jj rewrites while keeping exact comment history.

• Keep unmatched comments as outdated threads linked to their original snapshot.

• Archive and restore local reviews.

• Connect GitHub Copilot CLI once through a native per-user MCP bridge.

Related MCP server: copilot-mcp-server

Requirements

• VS Code 1.96 or newer.

• jj 0.44 or newer available to the VS Code extension host.

• A trusted file-system workspace containing one jj repository.

• GitHub Copilot CLI if you want agent review support.

The packaged extension includes the native bridge executable. End users do not need Node.js, Rust, or another bridge runtime.

Local and remote extension hosts are supported when the matching native VSIX can run there. This includes WSL, SSH, Dev Containers, and VS Code Tunnels. Run GitHub Copilot CLI in the same extension-host environment as InReview. The bridge does not forward IPC between hosts.

If VS Code cannot find jj, restart every VS Code window after changing PATH, or set InReview: Jj Path to the absolute executable path.

Install the local VSIX

Build and install:

npm ci
npm run package:vsix
code --install-extension .\inreview-<target>-0.0.1.vsix --force

Building a VSIX requires Rust 1.88 or newer. <target> is the current native platform, such as linux-x64, darwin-arm64, or win32-x64.

Each update to main runs the Publish VSIX release GitHub Actions workflow. The workflow publishes a GitHub Release with separate VSIX files for the x64 and arm64 variants of Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Reload VS Code after installation.

Known issue: Node URL deprecation warning

VS Code 1.135 can print a Node DEP0169 warning about url.parse() after it successfully installs any local VSIX. A deprecation trace points to the gallery metadata request in VS Code's cliProcessMain.js; the same trace occurs with a minimal extension in isolated user-data and extension directories. Test startup can also report the warning as [AgentHost:stderr] immediately after VS Code's built-in Agent Host starts. InReview's source and production bundle do not call the deprecated API. Microsoft owns the upstream fix in microsoft/vscode#301941; the matching VSIX report was closed as a duplicate.

Review changes

1. Open one trusted jj repository in VS Code.

2. Open the InReview Activity Bar view.

3. Run InReview: Start Review.

4. Choose Choose Range, Workspace Stack (Last X), or Advanced: Enter jj Revset.

5. For Choose Range or Workspace Stack, select a recorded workspace head when the repository has more than one workspace.

6. For a range, select the newest included change and then the oldest included change. Use Load older changes to extend the history window.

7. Confirm the ordered selection preview.

8. Select a file under Active Review to open its native diff.

9. Use the comment gutter on either stored side of a changed text file, or use Add File Comment.

10. After a selected change is rewritten, run InReview: Refresh Review.

11. After adding direct descendant changes to a workspace stack, run InReview: Include New Changes.

InReview stores immutable snapshots. A thread remains inline only when its complete target and context map exactly and uniquely to the refreshed diff. Otherwise, it becomes Outdated and stays available from the Comments view.

Last X means the selected recorded workspace head plus up to X - 1 direct ancestors. The selection is a contiguous, single-parent stack. It stops before the jj root change, so a request can contain fewer than X changes. InReview rejects merges, divergent changes, and unresolved conflicts in the selected stack. Refresh follows the original stable change IDs after rewrites; it does not follow later movement of the workspace head.

Include New Changes lists recorded workspace heads that directly descend from the current review head. Select a workspace, then choose the newest change to include. All earlier descendants in that workspace chain are included, while later descendants remain outside the review. InReview rejects unrelated heads, gaps, merges, divergence, and conflicts. Existing comments project to the new immutable snapshot with the same exact matching rules as refresh.

Another workspace contributes its last jj-recorded working-copy commit. Filesystem edits that jj has not yet snapshotted in that workspace are not visible to InReview. Selecting a workspace does not bind refresh to its name: the review stores full stable change IDs and remains valid if the workspace is renamed, forgotten, or moved.

Choose Range browses up to 200 ancestors of the selected recorded workspace head in pages of 50. The newest and oldest selected changes are both included. InReview rejects a range that crosses a merge, contains a divergent change or unresolved conflict, or does not form one contiguous parent chain.

Advanced jj Revset accepts any revset that resolves to 1–200 changes in one contiguous, single-parent chain. InReview previews the resolved changes and stores their full stable change IDs. It does not save or re-evaluate the original revset during refresh.

Line comments are available on any line of the stored original or modified content for a text file included in the diff. This includes deleted lines and the original content of deleted files. Expand an unchanged section in the native diff to comment outside a displayed hunk. A refresh keeps a thread current only when its side, full target, and context have one exact match. Hunk comments and full-file comments use separate exact anchors; InReview does not fall back to fuzzy matching. All other threads become Outdated and remain linked to their immutable original snapshot. User comments can be edited or deleted. Agent replies are immutable. Resolved threads can be reopened.

Connect GitHub Copilot CLI

The extension installs its packaged native bridge in stable extension storage. One per-user bridge daemon serves every eligible InReview window in the same extension-host environment. Each trusted window registers its canonical workspace over a user-restricted Unix-domain socket or Windows named pipe. InReview does not open a TCP port.

The bridge starts automatically when a trusted window contains one supported jj repository and inreview.mcp.enabled is on. Opening an InReview view or running a command is not required.

1. Run InReview: Copy InReview MCP Setup.

2. Select either the copilot mcp add command or the mcp-config.json fragment.

3. Paste the result into GitHub Copilot CLI once in the same extension-host environment.

4. Use /mcp show to confirm the server connection.

The copied command has this shape:

copilot mcp add --tools "list_workspaces,connect_workspace,read_review_metadata,read_comments,reply_comment,close_comments" inreview -- "<native-launcher>"

The inreview entry discovers every workspace registered in that environment. You do not need one MCP entry per repository. Ask the agent to list the open workspaces, connect to one returned absolute root, and review its open comments.

MCP tools

The bridge uses no bearer token. It restricts its socket or named pipe to the current user, validates bounded messages, isolates MCP sessions, and exposes only the six tools above. The bridge routes operations to the registered extension process; it cannot read arbitrary files, run shell commands, or run jj. Do not use it in an untrusted shared-user environment.

Commands

Use the Command Palette or the matching view and comment actions.

Views

• Active Review shows the selected changes, current snapshot, display mode, and changed files.

• Comments groups open current, open outdated, and resolved threads.

• History shows the latest 20 archived reviews.

Review data is stored under VS Code's extension global storage. It includes immutable file snapshots, review metadata, and comments. It is never written into the repository. InReview uses compressed content-addressed blobs, serializes writes per repository, retains the latest 20 archived reviews, and garbage-collects unreferenced blobs. It sends no telemetry and makes no network requests. MCP traffic stays on a local per-user socket or named pipe.

Settings

Current limitations

• One jj repository per VS Code window.

• Reviews must contain one contiguous, single-parent change stack.

• Merge changes and unresolved conflicts are rejected.

• No comments on unchanged files outside the selected diff.

• Native per-file diffs rather than VS Code's proposed multi-file diff API.

• No bridge forwarding between local and remote extension hosts.

• No cloud synchronization or shared review server.

• The bridge has no application token. Its local IPC endpoint relies on the current user's operating-system access controls.

• Linux, macOS, WSL, SSH, Dev Container, and Tunnel extension hosts are supported targets but were not all manually exercised for the 0.0.1 release.

Development

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm run test:unit
npm run test:integration
npm run build:production
npm run validate:package
npm run package:vsix

npm run check runs type checking, linting, unit and jj integration tests, the production bundle, and package validation.

The extension uses stable public VS Code APIs. It does not enable proposed APIs. Package validation enforces an exact VSIX allowlist: the manifest, README, changelog, production bundle, and icon.

The main source areas are:

src/domain/   Persisted review and comment models
src/storage/  Atomic manifests, locks, and content-addressed blobs
src/jj/       Safe jj process adapter and snapshot capture
src/diff/     Git patch parsing and file classification
src/review/   Review lifecycle and comment services
src/vscode/   Views, native virtual diffs, and Comments API integration
src/mcp/      Streamable HTTP transport, tools, and Copilot setup