CommitBrief is an open-source CLI that brings code review into the terminal. Before a change reaches a colleague, you have it read by the model you already use.
Why the terminal
Review usually starts after the pull request is open, by which point the author has moved on to something else. CommitBrief pulls review earlier: --staged reviews what has not been committed yet, so findings arrive while the context is still in your head.
Provider-agnostic and local-first
The tool is written in Go and ships as a single binary. It has no server, requires no account, and collects no telemetry. Ten LLM providers are supported and you decide which model to use. A local response cache means reviewing the same diff twice does not cost twice.
Review scopes
There are three: staged changes that have not been committed, a historic commit range, and a whole GitHub pull request. The same tool fits both day-to-day development and picking up someone else’s contribution.
The rules file
Repository-specific review rules live in COMMITBRIEF.md. The commitbrief compress command rewrites that file into an equivalent but denser instruction set, backs up the original, and refuses to overwrite when the result is not actually smaller.
Licence
The project is licensed under GPL-3.0 and developed on GitHub. Install with brew on macOS and Linux, scoop on Windows, or go install.
Key features
- Provider-agnostic, with ten LLM providers supported
- Local-first: no server, no account
- Reviews staged changes, a historic range, or a whole GitHub pull request
- Zero telemetry
- Local response cache
- Install via brew, scoop, go install, or a prebuilt binary
Frequently asked questions
Which LLM providers does it work with?+
Ten providers are supported and the choice is yours. You supply the API key you already use; the tool is not tied to any single provider.
Does my code go to a server?+
CommitBrief has no server of its own and collects no telemetry. The request goes straight to the provider you chose, with no CommitBrief infrastructure in between.
What can it review?+
Staged changes, a historic commit range, or an entire GitHub pull request.
How is it installed?+
brew on macOS and Linux, scoop on Windows. It can also be built with `go install`, or downloaded as a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases.
Does it cost anything?+
CommitBrief is open source under GPL-3.0. The only cost is the usage you pay your own LLM provider.
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