Gitnotate

git + annotate — Sub-line commenting for Markdown files in GitHub PR reviews.

Gitnotate lets you comment on specific words and phrases within a line — not just the whole line — directly in GitHub Pull Request reviews. It ships as a Chrome/Edge browser extension and a VSCode extension, both enhancing GitHub's native commenting with sub-line precision.

The Problem

GitHub PR reviews only support line-level comments. When reviewing Markdown documents (specs, proposals, plans), you often want to comment on a specific phrase like "revenue growth exceeded expectations" — not the entire line. Word and Google Docs do this well; GitHub doesn't.

How It Works

Gitnotate uses a lightweight approach: it embeds sub-line metadata directly in standard GitHub PR comments. This means:

• Works without the extension — comments show a quoted text fallback, fully readable by anyone
• Zero extra files — no sidecar files or infrastructure needed
• All GitHub features — threading, resolve, @mentions, reactions, notifications work out of the box

See ROADMAP.md for the full architecture, research, and implementation plan.

Installation

VS Code Marketplace

1. Search "Gitnotate" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X) or visit the VS Code Marketplace page
2. Click Install
3. Open a repo with an active PR — sign in to GitHub when prompted
4. Select text in a Markdown file and right-click → Gitnotate: Add Comment

Chrome Web Store

1. Visit the Gitnotate page on Chrome Web Store
2. Click Add to Chrome

Edge Add-ons

1. Visit the Gitnotate page on Edge Add-ons
2. Click Get to install

Install from GitHub Release

1. Download gitnotate-v0.1.0.zip from the latest release
2. Extract the zip to a folder on your computer
3. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions)
4. Enable "Developer mode" (toggle in the top-right corner)
5. Click "Load unpacked" → select the extracted folder
6. The Gitnotate icon should appear in your toolbar

Note: Manually installed extensions show a "Developer mode" warning on browser startup. Installing from the store removes this.

To update: download the new zip, extract to the same folder, then click the reload ↻ button on the extension card.

Install from Source

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/pedrofuentes/gitnotate.git
2. Install dependencies: pnpm install
3. Build: pnpm build
4. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions)
5. Enable "Developer mode"
6. Click "Load unpacked" → select packages/browser-extension/dist/

Setup

1. Click the Gitnotate icon in your toolbar
2. Visit any PR → click "Enable" on the opt-in banner
3. Select text in a diff to start commenting

VSCode Extension

The VSCode extension brings sub-line commenting directly into your editor for GitHub PR reviews.

Key Capabilities

• Sub-line comment threads — native VSCode comment threads anchored to exact character ranges in PR diffs
• Comments sidebar — all PR comments grouped by file with click-to-navigate
• Reply & resolve — full threading and resolution via GitHub's review API
• Live polling — auto-refresh comments via ETag-based conditional requests (configurable interval)
• Side-aware diffs — comments placed on the correct side (old/new) in diff views
• Diff-aware anchoring — comment threads follow text through local edits

Install

Search "Gitnotate" in VSCode's Extensions view or install from the VS Code Marketplace.

Setup

1. Open a repository with an active PR
2. Sign in to GitHub when prompted (uses VSCode's built-in GitHub auth)
3. Open a Markdown file from the PR — comment threads appear automatically
4. Select text and right-click → "Gitnotate: Add Comment" to post a sub-line comment

Status

🚀 v0.1.0 — Browser extension for Chrome/Edge and VSCode extension — all live.

License

MIT