Explain a pull request

An explanation tells you what a change does and why, in plain words, for someone who has never seen the code. Read it before you review a pull request, or before you ask a teammate to review yours.

Explain a teammate's pull requestCopy Anchor Link

1. Choose Explain a pull request… in the command palette (⌘K), or Explain a pull request on the Ask page.
2. Pick the repository if you have more than one.
3. Pick a pull request. Waiting for your review lists the pull requests that ask for your review. Opened by you lists yours. Type to search, or paste a link to a pull request.

Korev runs gh pr view and gh pr diff, then opens a read-only Ask chat named after the pull request. Nothing is checked out and the agent cannot change any files. Pick the same pull request again and Korev opens the same chat, as long as no new commits were pushed.

Explain a stackCopy Anchor Link

When the pull request you pick builds on other open pull requests, Korev explains it together with every pull request below it, down to the default branch. Korev finds them by following each pull request's base branch, so this works for GitHub stacks and for branches you stacked by hand.

• Under the title, Stack of N lists the pull requests from the bottom up.
• The stack says what each pull request adds. Click its step count to go to its first step.
• Each walkthrough step shows the pull request its code comes from.

Pick a pull request in the middle of a stack to explain only it and the pull requests below it.

Explain your own changesCopy Anchor Link

Press Explain in the Changes tab, or on the pull request card in the pull request tab. You can also choose Explain these changes in the command palette. Korev compares the branch with its target branch, including files that are not committed yet, and opens a new chat in the workspace.

Read the explanationCopy Anchor Link

The chat opens on Explanation. It has:

• In one sentence: what the change does for the people who use the product, with a short summary under it.
• Before and After: how things behave without and with the change.
• How it works: the parts of the change and how they connect. Click a box to read about it.
• Walkthrough: the change in steps, in the order that makes it easy to follow. Each step shows the lines it talks about. Press Got it, next step or use ← and → to move. Ask about this step puts the step's name in the message box.
• Look closely: what a reviewer should check by hand, from high to low. Click a file name to go to its step.
• Questions for the author: hover a question to copy it.
• Other files: files you can skim, with the reason. Not explained lists changed files the explanation does not mention, so read those in the diff.
• Words used here: the technical words the explanation uses. In the text, these words have a dotted underline. Hover one to see its meaning.

Switch to Chat to see the agent's work or to ask a question. A reply that holds a new explanation, for example after "explain it more simply", replaces the one you see.

On your phoneCopy Anchor Link

In the phone app, a chat with an explanation opens on it, with the same sections. Tap a step to open it, and tap an underlined word to see its meaning. Switch to Chat to ask a question.

• Tap Explain on the pull request bar of a workspace to explain its changes.
• Tap the book icon on the Ask tab to pick a pull request that waits for your review or that you opened.

Share an explanationCopy Anchor Link

Press Export HTML at the top of the explanation to save it as one HTML file. It opens in any browser, follows the reader's light or dark mode, and runs no scripts. Click a step to open it, and hover an underlined word to see its meaning. Send the file to a teammate who does not use Korev, or attach it to the pull request.

When the change moves onCopy Anchor Link

When new commits arrive, or the branch changes, a banner says the change moved on. Press Update and the agent explains the new diff in the same chat.

If the agent's answer cannot be read, Korev asks it once to fix it. If that fails too, the explanation shows the reason and Try again.

The explanation uses the explain model.