Review thread changes

Before you accept a thread's work, you usually want to look at the diff. There are three ways. Pick the one that matches the situation.

1. /diff inside the thread's pane

Switch into the thread (click its row in the ThreadList), then run /diff. The modal shows every uncommitted change in that thread's worktree. Scroll, eyeball, close.

This is the fastest option. Works on any thread, including Dispatch's own changes in Cowboy mode.

2. Open the worktree in your editor

The /diff modal has two buttons:

  • open workspace opens the entire thread worktree as a project.
  • edit on a file's header opens just that file with a diff view.

Both use the editor set under /settings → Editor, which defaults to vim. If you'd rather see the worktree in a regular IDE than land in vim for the whole project, switch to VS Code or Cursor under /settings → Editor first.

Use this option when the diff is too large to skim in the modal, or when you want to run something against the worktree before accepting: a test suite, a typecheck, your own linter.

3. Ask the thread for a review

Type the review you want into the thread: "look over your changes and cut anything that drifted from the request," or "check the auth changes for security issues." The thread rereads its own diff and reports back before you accept.

Say what you want checked. A narrow prompt — security, performance, test coverage — gets you a sharper read than "review this." For a review that follows a fixed standard on every change, write it once as a skill or a custom command, or install a review plugin from a marketplace.

When to use which

  • Trivial change you can eyeball: /diff.
  • Large diff, or you want to run tests against it: open the worktree in your editor.
  • Security, performance, or other targeted concern: ask the thread for a review.

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