review-brief-plugin

A GitHub Copilot CLI plugin that adds the review-brief skill. Ask Copilot for a brief of a set of code changes and it builds a temporary, standalone HTML page that helps you understand the change before you review it.

The brief includes:

Summary: stats, a "where to start" pointer, and review notes, including discrepancies between the change and its stated purpose.
Hotspots: the riskiest areas to read first, each with items to verify.
Reading path and an optional guided walkthrough: a suggested order for reading the change.
Diagrams: before/after Mermaid diagrams of the affected flow.
Files: a one-line description of each changed file, with the diff (unified or split) or full file shown alongside in a pane you can widen by dragging the divider.
Highlights: the key code snippets.
An optional review quest game layer that tracks your review progress in the browser.

It works with Angular/SKY UX SPAs, .NET services, and any project git can diff. Supported sources:

Uncommitted local changes
A branch or commit range
A GitHub pull request
An Azure DevOps pull request
A patch file
Two folder snapshots

The brief is a reading aid. It does not replace code review.

Screenshots

These come from a brief for a small sample change that adds discount codes and payment retries to a fictional checkout service.

Summary: what changed, where to start, per-area stats, and review notes (including a discrepancy between the ticket and the code).

Summary tab with overview, stats, and review notes

Hotspots: the code to read first, ranked by risk, with questions to answer before approving.

Hotspots tab with ranked hotspots and verify checklists

Diagrams: before/after flow diagrams, with new components in green and changed ones in yellow.

Diagrams tab with before and after checkout flow diagrams

Guided walkthrough: the change told as ordered steps. Selecting a step opens the file with the relevant lines highlighted. A single button copies all the steps (titles and explanations) as text.

Walkthrough tab with a step selected and its diff lines highlighted

Requirements

GitHub Copilot CLI
Node.js 18 or later
For GitHub PRs: the GitHub CLI (gh), authenticated
For Azure DevOps PRs: the Azure CLI (az) with the azure-devops extension, logged in

Install

copilot plugin install blackbaud-BrandonPasquarelli/review-brief-plugin

Check that the plugin is installed:

copilot plugin list

In a new Copilot session, /skills list should include review-brief.

Usage

Ask Copilot in plain language. For example:

"Give me a review brief of my uncommitted changes."
"Create a review brief for this branch compared with origin/main."
"Review brief for https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123"
"Summarize Azure DevOps PR https://dev.azure.com/org/project/_git/repo/pullrequest/456 visually before I review it."

The page is written under %TEMP%\change-viz\ (outside any repo), and Copilot gives you its path. The skill doesn't modify your repositories. Your code is not sent to third-party services; the page only loads the Mermaid script from a CDN to draw diagrams.

Update or uninstall

copilot plugin update review-brief
copilot plugin uninstall review-brief

Local development

Install from a local clone to test changes:

copilot plugin install ./review-brief-plugin

The CLI caches installed plugins, so run the install command again after each edit. The skill lives in skills/review-brief/; its generator is scripts/change-viz.js (run node change-viz.js --help for the options).