bgh — BetterGithub

A fast, local, read-only GitHub viewer for the PRs and issues you care about. It syncs repos into SQLite in the background, so pages load from local disk in about 5–50ms.

Setup

Requirements: Python 3.12+, uv, and the GitHub CLI (gh).

gh auth login                        # bgh uses `gh auth token` for GitHub API access
cp config.example.toml config.toml   # then set `repos` to the repos you want to sync
export GEMINI_API_KEY=...            # optional: enables ✦ comment summaries
uv run bgh                           # http://127.0.0.1:7777

Edit config.toml and set repos to the repos you want to sync, e.g. repos = ["python/cpython"]. bgh won't start until you do. Everything else has sensible defaults.

Configuration is in config.toml: repos, hidden authors, comment patterns treated as noise, list labels to hide, and views. Restart after editing it. config.toml and the local database (bgh.db) are gitignored, so your repos and synced data stay on your machine.

Reduced vs full view (v)

The reduced view hides:

• comments/reviews by hidden_authors (globs; bots match as name[bot]), plus authors hidden via the ⊘ button next to a name
• resolved or outdated review threads
• timeline noise (labels, review requests, cross-refs, assignments, force-pushes, …) and CI command comments (hidden_comment_patterns, e.g. /test)

A description written by a hidden author is collapsed rather than removed. Unread status and list sorting use the last non-hidden activity, so bot comments don't bump items.

Diffs

• f (or the "full file" button) shows the whole file with the diff highlighted in place. Press it again for hunks only. In full view, ]/[ jump between change blocks.
• s split/unified, j/k files, ]/[ hunks, x collapse or expand. Big PRs render the first ~6k lines; later files load when you expand them.
• Review threads appear inline at their line. Threads outside the diff context show at the top of the file.
• Since last review (i): diffs the PR's files between your baseline and the head. The baseline is the later of your last submitted GitHub review and a local m mark. This works across force-pushes because both snapshots are fetched and diffed locally. If the branch was rebased, upstream edits to the same files show up too.
• The Δ next to any commit or force-push in the conversation shows the changes since that point.

LLM summaries

Comments longer than min_chars get a ✦ summary button in their header (or press S on the selected entry). The summary is shown in a dashed purple box labeled AI SUMMARY, and the original is hidden until you click ↩ original. It uses gemini-3.8-flash through Gemini's OpenAI-compatible API. The key comes from [summarizer] api_key in config.toml, or else $GEMINI_API_KEY. Summaries are cached in the DB, so reopening one costs nothing. For review-thread replies, the code and earlier replies are sent as context.

Keyboard reference

Press ? on any page to show these keys in an overlay.

Everywhere

key	action
gg / G	jump to top / bottom of the page
:	jump box: type 123, #123, owner/repo#123, or paste a github.com URL, then Enter
?	show/hide key help
Esc	close help / leave a text box

List page

key	action
j / k	move down / up
Enter or o	open selected item
1–9	switch view (Mine, Review requested, All PRs, …)
/	filter by text (title, number, author, label). Enter selects the first match; press Enter again to open it
r	sync now

PR / issue page

key	action
v	toggle reduced / full view (remembered)
c	conversation tab
d	files / diff tab (PRs)
u	back to list
o	open on github.com
R	refresh this item from GitHub now
m	mark current head as reviewed (baseline for "since last review")

Search (PR / issue pages, vim-style)

key	action
/	search; type the query, then Enter jumps to the first match at or after where you are
n / N	next / previous match (wraps around; the counter shows 3/17)
Esc	clear the search and its highlights

Smartcase: an all-lowercase query ignores case, and any capital letter makes it case-sensitive. On the files tab, search first expands and loads every file so nothing is missed. In reduced view, hidden comments are skipped.

Conversation tab

key	action
j / k	next / previous comment or event
S	LLM summary ⇄ original for the selected entry (same as its ✦ summary button)

Files tab

key	action
j / k	next / previous file
] / [	next / previous hunk (change block in full-file view)
x	collapse / expand current file
f	full file with the diff highlighted in place / back to hunks
s	split / unified (remembered)
i	toggle "since last review"

j/k and ]/[ continue from whatever is on screen, so mouse scrolling and keys work together. With the mouse: ⊘ next to a name hides that author, and Δ next to a commit or force-push shows the changes since that point.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.