nit-cli 0.4.0

Terminal diff viewer with inline review comments

nit

Terminal diff viewer with inline review comments.

Navigate diffs with vim-style keybindings, leave comments on specific lines, and persist them as structured JSON. Useful for code review workflows, self-review before committing, and giving feedback to AI coding tools.

Install

brew install joshuazd/tap/nit

Or via pip/pipx:

pipx install nit-cli

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/joshuazd/nit.git
pipx install ./nit

Usage

# Review current branch changes (vs main/master)
nit

# Review unstaged changes
nit --mode unstaged

# Review all uncommitted changes
nit --mode all

# Review a specific commit range
nit HEAD~3..HEAD
nit main..feature

# Review any file (read-only, no git required)
nit path/to/file.py

# Filter to specific files or directories
nit --path src/
nit --path src/nit/app.py main..feature

# Export comments on quit
nit --export-comments comments.md
nit --export-comments - --export-format json  # stdout as JSON

On main/master, nit defaults to unstaged mode. On feature branches, it defaults to branch diff. The diff auto-refreshes every 5 seconds.

Keybindings

Key	Action
j / k	Move cursor down / up
J / K	Jump to next / previous hunk
n / p	Next / previous file
] / [	Jump to next / previous comment
gg / G	Jump to top / bottom
c	Add comment on current line
d	Delete comment on current line
e	Export comments to clipboard
m	Cycle diff mode (branch / unstaged / staged / all)
s	Toggle side-by-side diff view
w	Toggle word-level diff highlighting
W	Toggle hide whitespace-only changes
h	Toggle syntax highlighting
r	Refresh diff
q	Quit

Git operations (g-prefixed)

Key	Action
ga	Stage hunk under cursor
gu	Unstage hunk (staged mode)
gx	Discard hunk
gc	Commit with message prompt

Comment Storage

Comments are saved to .nit.json at the root of your git repository. The format is structured JSON:

{
  "version": 1,
  "branch": "my-feature",
  "base": "main",
  "comments": [
    {
      "file": "src/app.py",
      "line": 42,
      "line_content": "    return result",
      "comment": "Should handle the empty case here",
      "hunk_context": ["...", "..."],
      "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00+00:00",
      "diff_mode": "branch"
    }
  ]
}

Add .nit.json to your global gitignore to keep comments local:

echo '.nit.json' >> ~/.config/git/ignore

Claude Code Integration

nit works as a review tool for Claude Code. Leave comments on Claude's changes using nit, then have Claude read them with /nit. This creates a feedback loop where you can guide Claude's work through inline code review.

Install the plugin

In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add joshuazd/nit
/plugin install nit

Then use /nit in any project to have Claude read and address your comments.

Local development

If you cloned the repo, you can test the plugin directly:

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/nit

Development

git clone https://github.com/joshuazd/nit.git
cd nit
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

The ./nit bootstrap script auto-creates a virtualenv at ~/.local/share/nit/venv for quick local use without a manual install.

License

GPL-3.0 - see LICENSE for details.