Why I built DiffSeek: reviewing code is the slow part now

With LLMs writing more of the code, my pull requests to review got longer while the time I had for them stayed the same. Review became the step everything else waits on, and that's where I thought a small tool could help: make it easier to see which files still need a person to read them.

DiffSeek for GitHub is a Chrome extension that adds this to GitHub's own "Files changed" page rather than replacing it.

Hiding generated files

When you open a PR, generated files and files you've already viewed are hidden, and one click in the filter menu shows them again. A file counts as generated when your repo's root .gitattributes marks it with linguist-generated, the attribute GitHub already uses:

dist/** linguist-generated=true api/client/** linguist-generated=true 

These files are also marked viewed automatically, so they count toward your progress.

Progress in the file tree

Each file and folder in GitHub's file tree gets a viewed badge: an empty circle while unread, a half-filled one when partly reviewed, a check once done. Clicking a folder's badge marks its unread visible files as viewed, so on a large PR I can tell what's left by looking at the tree.

The filter menu can also show a single CODEOWNERS owner, group or file format at a time.

Privacy

DiffSeek works through your existing GitHub session, so private repos work without a token or account. It has no backend and collects no data.

Try it

The source is on GitHub under the MIT license: https://github.com/n8v-guy/diffseek

You can install it from the Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/lpohfkpkmaakdllgpognpjegifccnfec

If you review a lot of PRs, I'd like to hear what still slows you down, in the comments or as an issue.