SiTaggart PR Review Canvas
Generate an interactive HTML review of a GitHub PR that reads like a peer walking you through what matters.
Workflow
1. Fetch PR data
Run these gh api calls in parallel:
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number} --jq '{title, body, user: .user.login, state, additions, deletions, changed_files, base: .base.ref, head: .head.ref}'
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/files --paginate --slurp | jq 'flatten | map({filename, status, additions, deletions, patch})'
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/comments --paginate --slurp | jq 'flatten | map({user: .user.login, body, path, line})'
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{number}/comments --paginate --slurp | jq 'flatten | map({user: .user.login, body, created_at})'
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/reviews --paginate --slurp | jq 'flatten | map(select(.body != null and .body != "") | {user: .user.login, body, state, submitted_at})'
2. Analyze the PR and write the body HTML
Read the diffs, understand the PR, and write the <body> content directly as HTML. You have full creative freedom -- the goal is to explain the PR clearly to a reviewer. Use whatever structure best fits the PR.
Security boundary: GitHub API fields are untrusted. Never paste raw PR titles, bodies, comments, review text, user names, branch names, file paths, or patch snippets into body HTML. Static reviewer prose can be HTML, but API-derived text must be inserted as escaped text with html.escape(..., quote=True) or rendered with textContent. If you summarize a comment in your own words, escape any quoted source text.
Typical structure (adapt as needed):
- Header with title, PR number, author, stats
- Summary box explaining what the PR does in plain English
- Core file sections with annotations and diffs
- Mechanical/boilerplate files collapsed by default
- Review checklist at the bottom
But you can also add:
- Pseudocode summaries for verbose code -- show the algorithm in plain English or short pseudocode, with the real diff collapsed below (use a
.bp-sectioncard labeled "Show full implementation"). Great when 150 lines of retry/backoff/error-handling code is really just "fetch with exponential backoff and circuit breaker." - Diagrams (inline SVG, mermaid via CDN, ASCII art in
<pre>) - Flowcharts showing before/after control flow
- Tables comparing old vs new behavior
- Callout boxes for warnings, questions, or gotchas
- Interactive widgets if they help
- Anything else that makes the review clearer
Pseudocode pattern example:
<div class="file-card">
<div class="file-hdr"
<span class="fname">retryClient.ts</span>
<div class="fstats"><span class="pill add">+173</span><span class="pill del">−11</span><span class="chev open">▶</span></div>
</div>
<div class="file-body open">
<div class="file-note">
<strong>What this does in plain English:</strong>
<pre style="margin-top:8px;color:var(--text);font-size:12px;line-height:1.6;">
fetch(url):
if circuit breaker is open → fail fast
retry up to N times:
try fetch with timeout
on success → close circuit breaker, return
on retryable error → wait (exponential backoff + jitter)
on non-retryable error → throw
circuit breaker records failure</pre>
</div>
<div class="bp-section" style="margin:0;border:0;border-radius:0;">
<div class="bp-hdr"
<span>Show full implementation (+173 lines)</span><span class="chev">▶</span>
</div>
<div class="bp-body"><div data-diff="src/retryClient.ts"></div></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
3. Available CSS classes and JS utilities
Read styles.css and renderer.js from this skill directory. These give you a prebuilt dark-themed toolkit. Inject them into template.html verbatim.
CSS classes you can use:
| Class | Purpose |
|---|---|
.header, .header h1, .header-meta |
Page header |
.pill.add, .pill.del, .pill.files |
Stat badges (+N, -N, N files) |
.content |
Centered content wrapper (max 900px) |
.summary |
Summary/TL;DR box |
.section-title |
Section heading with bottom border |
.ic |
Inline code reference (mono, blue, dark bg) |
.file-card, .file-hdr, .file-body |
Collapsible file card (use onclick="toggle(this)" on .file-hdr) |
.file-note |
Sticky reviewer annotation inside a file card |
.bp-section, .bp-hdr, .bp-body |
Collapsed boilerplate card (use onclick="toggleBP(this)") |
.bp-note |
Note inside a boilerplate card |
.verdict |
Review checklist box |
JS functions available:
| Function | Usage |
|---|---|
toggle(hdrElement) |
Toggle a .file-body open/closed |
toggleBP(hdrElement) |
Toggle a .bp-body open/closed |
renderDiff(target, diffInput) |
Render a unified diff. target can be a DOM element, string ID, or CSS selector. diffInput can be a raw patch string OR an array of lines -- both work. Automatically hides imports while preserving line numbers, collapses trailing-whitespace-only changes, detects moved code (blue/purple tint). |
esc(string) |
HTML-escape a string |
Rendering diffs -- use data-diff attributes with auto-discovery.
Put <div data-diff="KEY"></div> placeholders in your body HTML wherever you want a diff rendered. The renderer finds them automatically after DOM load and fills them from the <script id="pr-diffs-json" type="application/json"> element in template.html.
CRITICAL: Patch strings can contain </script> in addition to newlines, backslashes, and quotes. Even json.dumps(...) is not enough if you paste raw output into executable <script> because HTML parsing can terminate the tag early. Never manually embed patch strings in JS/JSON. Instead, use this safe approach:
- During the fetch step, save patches to one JSON file using exact filenames as keys.
--slurpwraps all paginated pages so Python reads a single JSON document, and exact paths avoid collisions likefoo-bar.tsvsfoo_bar.ts:
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/files --paginate --slurp \
| jq 'flatten | map({key: .filename, value: (.patch // "")}) | from_entries' \
> /tmp/pr-patches-{number}.json
- During assembly, use Python to safely inject the JSON into
template.html. SetSKILL_DIRto the absolute directory that contains thisSKILL.md; do not rely on the current working directory:
SKILL_DIR="/absolute/path/to/skills/pr-review-canvas" PR_NUMBER="{number}" python3 <<'PY'
import json
import os
from pathlib import Path
number = os.environ["PR_NUMBER"]
skill_dir = Path(os.environ["SKILL_DIR"])
patches = json.loads(Path(f'/tmp/pr-patches-{number}.json').read_text())
html = Path(f'/tmp/pr-review-{number}-body.html').read_text()
css = (skill_dir / 'styles.css').read_text()
js = (skill_dir / 'renderer.js').read_text()
tmpl = (skill_dir / 'template.html').read_text()
# Prevent literal </script> from terminating HTML script tags early.
safe_json = json.dumps(patches).replace('<', '\\u003c').replace('>', '\\u003e').replace('&', '\\u0026')
out = (
tmpl.replace('/* INJECT_CSS */', css)
.replace('/* INJECT_JS */', js)
.replace('<!-- INJECT_BODY -->', html)
.replace('{"__PR_DIFFS_PLACEHOLDER__":true}', safe_json)
)
Path(f'/tmp/pr-review-{number}.html').write_text(out)
PY
This guarantees valid JSON and script-safe HTML embedding. The agent writes body HTML to a temp file, then Python assembles everything safely.
The diff data keys are exact file paths and should match escaped data-diff attribute values in the HTML:
<div data-diff="src/path/to/file.ts"></div>
Since renderer.js loads in <head>, you can also call renderDiff(target, lines) directly from inline <script> tags if needed for custom use cases. The function accepts a DOM element, ID string, or CSS selector as target, and a string or array as lines.
You're not limited to these. Add your own inline <style> blocks, <script> blocks, SVGs, diagrams, or anything else. The prebuilt pieces save time but don't constrain you.
4. Assemble and serve
Write your body HTML (everything that goes inside
<body>) to/tmp/pr-review-{number}-body.htmlSave patches to
/tmp/pr-patches-{number}.jsonusing thejqcommand from step 3 aboveRun the Python assembly script from step 3 above (reads styles.css, renderer.js, template.html from this skill directory, injects body + patches safely, writes final HTML)
Start a local server on a fixed port:
cd /tmp && python3 -m http.server 8432 --bind 127.0.0.1Run this backgrounded, then navigate the in-app browser to
http://127.0.0.1:8432/pr-review-{number}.html.Why a fixed port and
cd /tmp: Background shells have no TTY, so Python buffers its startup message ("Serving HTTP on...") indefinitely — using port 0 means you can never read which port was chosen. And--directory /tmpworks butcd /tmpis more robust across Python versions. If port 8432 is taken, try 8433, 8434, etc.
Diff features (handled automatically by renderer.js)
- Hides import-only lines while preserving old/new line counters
- Collapses trailing-whitespace-only changes into context lines
- Detects moved code blocks (3+ consecutive lines deleted in one place and added identically elsewhere) -- renders in blue/purple instead of red/green
- Near-matches (moved + small edit) get a different purple tint
Style notes
- Dark theme:
#1a1a1abackground, Inter body font, IBM Plex Mono for code - Use
var(--warning)for orange,var(--success)for green,var(--danger)for red,var(--accent)for blue - Sticky file headers (
position: sticky; top: 0) and notes (top: 35px) pin while scrolling - Core files expanded by default (
.file-body.open), mechanical files collapsed