Your first sync

Reviewing in revu starts with one deliberate action: sync. Syncing pulls a pull request down in a single burst — diff, files, threads, commits, checks — and stores it locally as a snapshot. From that point on you review offline: expand context, read threads, jump between files, and write comments with the network gone.

Follow along in mock mode with fixture #101 — the happy path — then try #204, a 2,400-line diff, to see how the same flow behaves on a large PR.

1. Open the inbox and pick a PR

The inbox is the pull-request list, grouped by what needs doing. Press g then i to reach it from anywhere.

Click a row — or focus it and press ↵ — to sync it. For your first run, pick #101.

The list itself is the one thing that keeps polling; it refreshes cheaply on ETag 304 responses, so leaving it open costs almost nothing. See the rate budget for why that matters.

2. Watch the sync burst

Syncing a PR for the first time is a cold sync: revu fetches the immutable half (the diff, files, and base-side blobs, keyed by compareKey) plus the mutable half (threads, checks, mergeability). A warm re-sync of an already-synced PR skips the immutable half entirely and reuses every blob.

In direct mode, blob content comes from your local git clone rather than the API — which is what keeps even a large PR cheap. That is why reviewing requires the repository cloned locally.

3. Read the diff

When the sync lands you are on the Files screen: a virtualized, syntax-highlighted diff with a file tree on the left.

A few things worth knowing on this screen:

• The snapshot seal in the header dates everything you are looking at. It is quiet when fresh and turns gold — with a re-sync action — when the world moved under you. See Snapshots.
• Large files, lockfiles, and binaries collapse by default, behind a Load anyway control, so a 2,400-line diff like #204 stays navigable. #204 also includes a rename and a binary to show how those render.
• u toggles unified / split view.
• j / k move to the next / previous file.

4. Move around by keyboard

Everything here is keyboard-driven. The keys you need for a first pass:

Marking files viewed (v) as you go is how you track progress across a big diff — see Viewed state and reactions.

Next

You have a snapshot and you can read it offline. Now write inline comments into a draft, then submit the review.