Improved pull request "Files Changed" experience feedback

[Akash1134]

Important
You can opt in to the public preview from any pull request via “✨Try the new experience” in the upper-right corner. You can return to the classic view by clicking the “switch back” link.

About the new experience

This refresh focuses on performance, accessibility, and clarity so reviews stay responsive—even on the largest pull requests.

What’s new ?

Performance 🚀

• Faster diff rendering with significantly lower memory usage.

UX ✨

• Comment and annotation indicators appear in the file tree to help you quickly identify files with comments, errors, or warnings.
• Pending comments are shown in the review submission panel so you can look over your comments before submitting.
• Local draft comments persist across page refreshes.
• Seamlessly switch between split and unified views.
• A new side panel helps you discover comments, including the ability to search for text while also providing quick access to errors and warnings (i.e. annotations) reported by status checks.
• The file tree is now resizable so you can take advantage of your larger display.

Accessibility ♿️

• Consistent keyboard navigation and screen reader landmarks added for better accessibility.
• Increased line spacing for readability—use Compact line height if you prefer a tighter view

🔴 Current Issues 🔴

As of the initial public preview release, there are some limitations that will be addressed over time:

• Applying multiple suggestions at one time (i.e. batching)
• Reviewing a single commit
• Rich diff previews for images, markdown, and more
• Code scanning alerts
• Annotations on unchanged files
• Small screen (e.g. mobile device) support

While our previous experience had hard limits on large PRs, this new experience is being built to scale. That said, we’re increasing our limits incrementally. To start with, our additional current limitations are:

• Limited to 300 files
• Comments: 40
• Replies per comment: 20
• Alerts: 50

How you can help

1. Take it for a spin on any PR’s /files page
2. Report bugs, edge cases, or usability pain points in the replies (screenshots/gifs welcome).
3. Tell us which future enhancements would make the biggest impact on your workflow.

Thanks for helping us build a better review experience—we read every comment!

[willmarcondeseso]

I would like to be able to scroll through the Pull Request while the comment modal is open.

Reason: When a comment is outdated, we need to look at the current version to check if it actually addresses the comment.

I really love this feature! THANK YOU!!!

[willmarcondeseso]

Thank You, for now, I Will use a JS code like Gist that help-me

javascript:( () => { document.querySelector('.env-production')?.style.setProperty(%27overflow%27, %27auto%27); })();

[nam20485]

I Will use a JS code like Gist that help-me

javascript:( () => { document.querySelector('.env-production')?.style.setProperty(%27overflow%27, %27auto%27); })();

Sorry- I am curious what is this? Are you applying custom JS to the PR page interface? And if so- how?

[julius-boxly]

@nam20485 I've gotten this to work using a bookmarklet

[yannbolliger]

Also a bit related: when I click on an "outdated" comment, it doesn't jump to it, it just closes the sidebar...
In other words, there should be a menu for outdated comments to be moved/deleted (from that sidebar).

[willmarcondeseso]

Vou usar um código JS como Gist que me ajudará
javascript:( () => { document.querySelector('.env-production')?.style.setProperty(%27overflow%27, %27auto%27); })();

Desculpe, estou curioso. O que é isso? Você está aplicando JavaScript personalizado à interface da página de RP? E se sim, como?

Yes, Bookmarklets,
You need only create a Browse Favorite Link, with the JS like URL, and when you click, this JS is running at current page.
I teach this better here

[rtalexk]

Update: I just found out that it appears when there's enough space (1280px width). Here's the updated feedback.

I'd like to see the branch name in the sticky header at all times so that I can easily copy it when I'm reviewing a PR.

---

I wrote the following before thoroughly experimenting.

I'd like to see the branch name when the sticky header is shown (i.e., when you've scrolled to the bottom).

The reason is that when I'm reviewing a long PR and want to checkout the branch to continue reviewing it locally, I have to go back all the way up to see or copy the branch name and then go back to where I left off.

[inkblotty]

Another good piece of feedback. It's hard to fit all the critical content on that sticky header with small page sizes, but your use case is a valid one and we'll talk about it. Thank you!

[ekohl]

The reason is that when I'm reviewing a long PR and want to checkout the branch to continue reviewing it locally, I have to go back all the way up to see or copy the branch name and then go back to where I left off.

I made an alias gpr $number on my system to check out a PR. I still prefer hub over gh but both can provide this. I think that's easier than relying on the branch name in the UI.

[arisacoba]

@rtalexk We’ve just updated this to fit more content in the sticky header on smaller viewports. The branch name might get truncated depending on the size, but you can hover over it to see the full name in a tooltip.

[rtalexk]

That's perfect, as soon as it has the Copy button it is fine. Thank you!

[rtalexk]

I find the comment indicators in the sidebar really useful. It might also be useful to have them in the "diff file header."

It's very useful when you've marked a file as "viewed" because you can see how many comments it has as you're scrolling without having to expand it.

[aricwalker]

That's great to hear and great suggestion! I agree it could be useful to have comment indicators at the file level especially when scrolling through "viewed" files. We'll take this back to the team to discuss. Thanks for the feedback!

[rtalexk]

Seamlessly switch between split and unified views.

This is really cool. Is it also possible to seamlessly toggle hiding white spaces? If that's achievable without doing a refresh would be amazing.

[aricwalker]

This is good feedback! We'll take this suggestion back to the team to discuss, thank you!

[CecilePalant]

I couldn't find it, how can i use this?

[CecilePalant]

Found it! It's the cog on the top right corner.

[rtalexk]

Clicking a line number always assumes you want to add a comment.

In the previous experience it only changes the URL to have deep linking.

[aaccioly]

Any workarounds to obtain permanent urls?

[arisacoba]

@rtalexk which browser are you using? Clicking the line number should just highlight the line, not open the add comment flow.

[rtalexk]

I'm using Arc Browser, but this isn't happening anymore. 👀

[thuringia]

This is so much better, I might go back from reviewing with the VSCode extension now 🚀

I love the new alerts panel, unfortunately it looks like pressing a to hide them doesn't work anymore.

Maybe we could have some grouping or clustering in the alerts panel in the future.
For example I would prefer to see alerts raised by the linter first, instead of "this line is not covered by tests".

[eugenet8k]

What VSCode extension did you use for code review?

[reecefenwick]

I would love to see the file tree sorted alphabetically with folders on top, then files. It is quite jarring to have changed files in the middle of folders when viewing the file tree currently.

Example of current state

App.tsx
components/
hooks/
index.ts
styles/
utils.ts

Example of desired state

components/
hooks/
styles/
App.tsx
index.ts
utils.ts

This would mirror how the majority of developers view the code in their IDE

[willsmythe]

Thanks for the feedback.

I definitely agree that we need to avoid mixing files and folders at the same level. How would you feel about files being listed before folders (when at the same level)?

App.tsx
index.ts
utils.ts
components/
hooks/
styles/

[reecefenwick]

Files below is preferable IMO for a more consistent experience

But I also would welcome files above, it would be a massive improvement 🙌

[franzliedke]

Indeed, files below would also be consistent with GitHub's own repo tree view.

[Nilomiranda]

I don't see the option to comment on the file itself, only on specific lines.

Some files just get stuck into a loading state, like this one:

The comments tab is really nice, I like being able to filter comments by author, makes it much easier to navigate the reviews and attend to the requested changes or overall feedback.

[RichFinn-WTW]

Was just looking for the 'add a file comment'...

Old experience:

New:

[inkblotty]

This one is 🚧 Under Construction. You should be able to view File-Level comments right now. We'll get this updated soon ~

[hermannleboss]

Thanks, i was looking for this feature also. And you all for your great job.

[jieyouxu]

Hi, I would like to play around with this, but I'm not seeing the opt-in mentioned in

You can opt in to the public preview from any pull request via “✨Try the new experience” in the upper-right corner. You can return to the classic view by clicking the “switch back” link.

Am I missing something?

[imanmahjoubi]

We are rolling this out to users slowly, you should be able to see it soon 🎉

[margaret-lin]

The tab for Ask Copilot seems to be missing, also when hovering over lines.

[njvrzm]

Not sure if this is the sort of feedback you're after, but the :shipit: emoji does not preview in the review textbox in the new version 😅 . It does show up correctly in the preview.

[KeithYeh]

1. I can't find "comment on this file" button in new UI

Old UI

2. How to hide alerts? I can toggle alerts by pressing "A" in old UI

[julioag-rmd]

On the Files changed tab I can only see 19 files out of 66. Why?

[julioag-rmd]

Ok, even if the dropdown to the right shows "All changes" already, I needed to click on it, then on the All changes options inside, for it to reload and really show all changes.

[ivymarkwell]

+1

[yannbolliger]

This just happened to me as well, super confusing

[vengut]

I used to be able to click on a useful link to see the submodule diff in PRs but now its just plain text.
Old:

New:

Could we have that back pls?

[fjmorel]

Or show us the list of commits from that diff directly!

[BE-Code]

It doesn't always seem to remember if hide whitespace was turned on.

[nekketsuuu]

+1. For example, after enabling "Hide whitespace", expanding omitted codes shows whitespace-only diffs.

[rmartins0]

Hide whitespace option not working properly. When going to direct link with ?w=1, it didn't work.

[logansnow17]

Miss the colors in file tree.

Worse information density in the new version is a downgrade- some unnecessary padding.

[brettdh]

The comments button at the top right shows zero comments if all comments are resolved, but when I click it, it shows the resolved comments in the sidebar. It would be better if the button either:

• showed the total number of comments, including resolved and unresolved comments; or
• showed the number of unresolved and resolved comments as separate counts

[AlexRiedler]

idk why, but sometimes it only shows the changes from last commit, although it says "all changes" ... this seems pretty dangerous

[jsoref]

I just tripped on this precise problem.

[jnm2]

Word wrapping is missing inside suggestion blocks.

The old experience works great:

The new experience makes it hard to quickly read the suggestion:

[markstory]

In the old UI, I'm able to submit a review (with line comments) and don't need to fill out the review level comment field. However, in the new UI, review level comments are required, as the submit button is disabled until the text box has some data in it.

I also noticed that ctrl+enter no longer persists line comments. Instead cmd+enter is required 😢

[sach1t]

I think the "You made it to the end!" with the image should only show up after all files are marked as viewed. I don't necessarily review from the top to the bottom. However, I would prefer if it was removed since it is distracting.

[StephenHodgson]

I thought is was super cute, and made my day just a little better

[edhgoose]

Looks really good - excited to play with it.

Couple of pieces of feedback:

I've noticed that the "a" option to show/hide annotations isn't working for me on the new preview. It doesn't change anything.

I've also noticed that hiding comments via the UI (the "Minimize comments" option) also hides annotations which I didn't expect - I want to be able to hide one or other, not both.

[craigdallimore]

In the new UI, the image diff are not shown. Apologies if this is a known regression.

[matt-cooper]

2 usability issues (one is new, the other is existing):

1. Clicking on the file path header causes the URL to change but no longer toggles the file contents open/closed so now I have to move my mouse all the way to the >/v button to toggle the panel. This is a much smaller target and slows down my code review process.
2. The Hide Whitespace option is not persistent. I almost never want to see differences in whitespace. Please make this a permanent user setting.

[PickHub]

Today I had two instances where I navigated to the "Files changed" tab and saw an outdated diff. A reload fixed it. I did not have that experience on the old version yet.

[drtangible]

I often review PRs after they've been merged from the Files changed tab.

In the new experience, seems like I'm unable to do so?

[StephenHodgson]

Would be great to be able to review more than the first 300 files

[ZhangYiJiang]

Copy/paste on Firefox desktop 140.0.2 stopped working in a line range comment, both keyboard shortcut and right click context menu. It started working again when I tried to run a screen recording for this comment, so it's not consistently reproducible

[stas-sbi]

How it was (kind of okay but radio buttons slow things down)

How it should be (buttons instead of radio buttons)

(Thanks to https://github.com/refined-github/refined-github)

New experience (radio buttons are still there but "submit" button is now far away from everything else)

[kaycho88]

Sooo good. very impressive! The new UI looks much better!
Just a small note: there are some slight design inconsistencies—the spacing between the squares isn’t even. Maybe it's just on my screen?