gh-review.vim
March 1, 2026 · View on GitHub
A Vim 9.0+ plugin for reviewing GitHub pull requests entirely within Vim.
Side-by-side diffs, review threads, code suggestions, and review submission — all driven by the gh CLI.
Also available for Neovim: gh-review.nvim.
Goal
This plugin — which is designed for the use case where you’ve already identified a specific PR or PR branch you’re ready to review — has just one single goal:
✅ provide the simplest means possible for performing a GitHub PR review within Vim
Anything beyond that is a non-goal — for example:
❌ GitHub Issues, Notifications, Discussions, or Actions/Workflows
❌ Managing labels, assignees, or requested reviewers
❌ Browsing or searching lists of PRs
❌ Merging or closing PRs
You are expected to perform those tasks using other tooling (for example, gh-dash).
Requirements
- Vim 9.0 or later
ghCLI, authenticated
Installation
With Vim’s built-in package manager:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start
git clone https://github.com/gh-tui-tools/gh-review.vim.git
With vim-plug:
Plug 'gh-tui-tools/gh-review.vim'
Workflows
The plugin has two main workflows: A “checkout” workflow, and a “no-checkout” workflow.
Checkout workflow
Typically used by a project maintainer reviewing a contributor’s PR. The branch is checked out locally so the reviewer can make edits, commit fixes, and push directly.
:GHReview 123 " PR number (checks out the branch)
:GHReview " auto-detect from current branch
- The right/head diff buffer is editable —
:wwrites to the working tree. - External file changes are detected and the plugin prompts to reload.
git pushpushes changes back to the PR branch (works for fork PRs too).
No-checkout workflow
Typically used by a non-maintainer reviewer who only needs to read the diff and leave comments.
:GHReview https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123
When the URL refers to a different repo than the current working directory, no checkout is attempted. The right/head diff buffer is read-only, but comments, suggestions, and review submission all work normally.
Quick start
:GHReview 123 Open PR #123
<CR> Open a file’s side-by-side diff
]t / [t Jump between review threads
gt View a thread
K Preview a thread (floating popup)
gc Add a comment
gF Jump to the file (checkout only)
g? Show keymap help
:GHReviewSubmit Submit a review
:GHReviewClose Close all review buffers
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
:GHReview | Open a PR (auto-detect, by number, or by URL) |
:GHReviewFiles | Toggle the changed files list |
:GHReviewStart | Start a pending review (optional — :GHReviewSubmit works without it) |
:GHReviewSubmit | Submit a review (Comment / Approve / Request changes) |
:GHReviewDiscard | Discard the pending review and all its pending comments |
:GHReviewClose | Close all review buffers and reset state |
Diff mappings
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
gt | Open the review thread at the cursor line |
gc | Create a new comment (visual mode: multi-line) |
gs | Create a suggestion (right buffer only, visual: range) |
]t | Jump to the next review thread |
[t | Jump to the previous review thread |
K | Preview the thread at cursor (floating popup) |
gf | Toggle the files list |
gF | Go to file at cursor line (checkout only) |
q | Close the diff view |
g? | Show keymap help |
Thread mappings
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl-S | Submit the reply |
Ctrl-R | Toggle resolved/unresolved |
q | Close the thread buffer |
Ctrl-Q | Close the thread buffer (works in insert mode) |
g? | Show keymap help |
Ctrl-X Ctrl-O | Complete @-mention from thread participants |
Signs and virtual text
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|---|
CT | Comment thread (blue) |
CR | Resolved thread (green) |
CP | Pending review comment (yellow) |
Each sign is accompanied by virtual text at end-of-line showing the first comment’s author and a truncated body — giving at-a-glance context without opening the thread.
Comment reactions are displayed as emoji with counts after each comment body in the thread buffer and floating preview.
Prompts
All prompts (submit review, discard review, checkout, file reload) use popup_menu() and confirm() for a modern UI — no raw inputlist() or input().
Statusline
&statusline ..= '%{gh_review#Statusline()}'
Returns "" when no review is active, or a summary like PR #42 · reviewing · 4 threads.
Comparison with other plugins
gh-review.vim shares its design with gh-review.nvim, its Neovim counterpart. There does not appear to be any other existing Vim plugin for performing GitHub PR reviews — but several Neovim plugins provide PR review features.
| Feature | gh-review.vim | gh-review.nvim | ghlite.nvim | gh.nvim | octo.nvim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Vim 9.0+ | Neovim 0.10+ | Neovim 0.10+ | Neovim | Neovim 0.10+ |
| PR review: side-by-side diff | Yes | Yes | Via diffview.nvim | Yes | Yes |
| PR review: comments/threads | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PR review: code suggestions | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| PR review: submit review | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PR review: resolve threads | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| PR review: thread signs | Yes (+ virtual text) | Yes (+ virtual text) | As diagnostics | No | No |
| Editable diff buffers | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (via checkout) | No |
| External change detection | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Fork PR push tracking | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| PR listing/browsing | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Merge PRs | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Labels/assignees/reviewers | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | No | Yes |
| GitHub Issues | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Notifications | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Discussions | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | No | Yes |
| Actions/Workflows | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | No | Yes |
| Reactions | No (non-goal) | No (non-goal) | No | No | Yes |
| Dependencies | gh CLI | gh CLI | gh CLI | gh CLI, litee.nvim | gh CLI, plenary.nvim, picker |
Documentation
See :help gh-review for full documentation.
See DESIGN.md for architecture and implementation details.