gh-threads
A read-only terminal UI for people receiving GitHub pull-request reviews. It shows open PRs and a scrollable PR dashboard with the description, branches, review state, checks, people, labels, milestone, activity, change statistics, thread totals, submitted reviews, and the PR conversation. Review threads and comments are paginated rather than silently stopping at the first page. The thread viewer includes highlighted diff hunks and comment authors. Resolved threads start folded. GitHub suggestion blocks are shown as syntax-highlighted remove/add previews. Comments and PR descriptions render GitHub Flavored Markdown, including quoted replies, inline and fenced code, lists and tasks, links, tables, emphasis, strikethrough, emoji, and GitHub alerts. The current PR is refreshed in the background.
Install and run
Requires Go 1.24+ and an authenticated GitHub CLI:
go install .
gh auth login
gh-threads
To run directly from a source checkout instead:
go run .
Use go run ., not go run main.go: the latter compiles only main.go and
omits the other files in the package.
For automation, GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN can still be provided and takes
precedence over the GitHub CLI credential. Enterprise token environment
variables are also supported.
By default the PR picker searches all repositories for open PRs assigned to the
authenticated user and groups the results by repository. Use --repo to limit
the picker to one repository:
gh-threads --repo owner/repository
With a repository selected, pass --all to include every open PR in that
repository:
gh-threads --repo owner/repository --all --poll 15s
GitHub Enterprise Server can be used after authenticating that host:
gh auth login --hostname github.example.com
gh-threads --repo owner/repository \
--endpoint https://github.example.com/api/graphql
Configuration
The optional TOML configuration is loaded from
$GH_THREADS_CONFIG, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gh-threads/config.toml, or the
operating system's user configuration directory at gh-threads/config.toml.
On Linux this is normally ~/.config/gh-threads/config.toml. On macOS,
~/Library/Application Support/gh-threads/config.toml is preferred, with
~/.config/gh-threads/config.toml automatically used as a fallback when it
exists.
theme = "dark" # dark, light, high-contrast, or no-color
refresh_interval = "10s"
repository = "" # optional owner/repository default
show_all = false # requires repository
limit = 50
endpoint = "https://api.github.com/graphql"
[display]
fold_resolved = true
thread_list_width_percent = 33 # 20-60
dashboard_mode = "hotkey" # "hotkey" or "intermediate"
compact_reviews = true # aggregate submitted review history
[paths]
scroll = false
scroll_interval = "350ms" # minimum 50ms
[threads]
# Each status must occur exactly once. "outdated" means unresolved and outdated;
# resolved threads remain in "resolved" even when they are also outdated.
status_order = ["unresolved", "outdated", "resolved"]
within_status = "file" # "file" or "timestamp" (oldest first)
[cache]
enabled = true # instant stale view plus offline fallback
max_age = "168h" # 7 days; 0 means no age limit
directory = "" # defaults to the OS user cache directory
When cached data exists, the picker and PR details are rendered immediately from that snapshot while a live GitHub refresh runs in the background. Cached screens are labelled with their save time and are replaced automatically when fresh data arrives. Check annotations are fetched separately only for failed checks so they do not inflate the initial PR query.
The cache uses separate JSON files for the picker and each visited PR. Cache content is hashed before writing: unchanged responses do not rewrite their files. Their modification time is touched at most once per day (or half the configured maximum age, when shorter) so recently validated snapshots remain usable without writing on every poll. Changed files are replaced atomically.
Command-line flags override the configuration. GH_REPO overrides the
configured repository when --repo is not provided. The corresponding flags
include --config, --theme, --poll, --fold-resolved,
--thread-list-width, --dashboard-mode, --compact-reviews,
--path-scroll, and --path-scroll-interval, plus --cache,
--cache-max-age, and --cache-dir.
Boolean settings can be disabled explicitly, for
example --compact-reviews=false.
With the default dashboard_mode = "hotkey", opening a PR goes directly to its
review threads and d opens the dashboard only when requested. Set
dashboard_mode = "intermediate" to follow picker → dashboard → review
threads instead.
Compact reviews aggregate submission counts by state and author. Reviews with
a written summary retain a compact one-line body, while timestamps and commit
SHAs are omitted. Set compact_reviews = false to restore the complete review
history and metadata.
Keys
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
h / l |
Focus the thread list / thread detail |
j / k |
Move between items or scroll the dashboard/focused detail |
? |
Show contextual keybinding help |
d |
Open the current pull request dashboard |
/ |
Fuzzy-search paths and filter with status:, author:, updated:true |
F |
Clear active thread filters |
n / N |
Next / previous thread with a new update |
↑ / ↓ |
Choose a fuzzy-search match |
g / G |
First / last item |
enter / l |
Open the selected PR dashboard or its review threads |
enter |
Toggle the selected review thread |
za |
Toggle the selected thread |
ctrl-d / ctrl-u |
Scroll thread detail or page through lists |
tab |
Hide or reveal the thread list |
b / esc |
Return to the previous screen |
r |
Refresh now |
q |
Quit |
Current scope
The application is intentionally read-only. The dashboard and contextual help
show the write capability gate, including why each future write action is
unavailable. Read state persists beside the configuration, and recent PR data
is cached for offline fallback. Check contexts and annotations are paginated.
GitHub features which depend
on server-side context, such as unfurling issue references or displaying
uploaded images, are represented textually in the terminal. See
TODO.md for remaining read-only work and write-support preparation.