Open Source VS Code Extension

Agent Diff Visualizer

ADV is a local-first VS Code extension that helps review large AI-generated git diffs by grouping changes semantically, surfacing risk, and reconstructing agent intent for human-in-the-loop review.

MITLocal-FirstRisk ReviewAI Workflow
Install From Marketplace

Overview

ADV focuses on a hard review problem: AI agents can produce broad, fast diffs that are difficult to validate safely at file level. Instead of forcing reviewers through raw patches alone, ADV turns change sets into task-oriented review units enriched with intent, trust, and architectural context.

The project is open-source under the MIT License, and it is built to support workflows around Cline, Aider, OpenDevin, Copilot Agent mode, Cursor, and related agentic tooling.

Core Capabilities

Semantic Task Clustering

Groups changed files into logical tasks such as auth refactors, UI updates, and database schema work with task-oriented labels and file impact metrics.

Confidence Scoring

Aggregates risk signals such as secrets, complexity, drift, and architectural smell into a single trust metric.

Intent Mapping

Extracts user prompt and agent reasoning from local Cline and Aider logs so reviewers understand why changes happened.

Risk Highlighting

Detects hardcoded secrets, sensitive path changes, and complexity spikes before generated edits are accepted.

Advanced Features

Intent Drift Detection

Compares prompt scope against changed files and alerts when edits extend beyond declared intent, including severity, evidence, and affected files.

Dependency Topology Map

Visualizes file relationships and architectural risks with impact edges and smell edges for cross-layer issues or circular dependencies.

Atomic Reversion Timeline

Lets reviewers scrub through agent execution flow and roll back from any step onward while keeping earlier approved work.

Review Status Tracking

Persists task-level review state per workspace with pending, approved, rejected, and read markers.

Quick Start

Workflow

  1. Install from the VS Code Marketplace.
  2. Open a workspace with uncommitted git changes.
  3. Run ADV: Open Agent Diff Review from the command palette.
  4. Review semantic groups on the left and intent, topology, and reversion context on the right.

Review Surface

  • Approve or reject semantic groups instead of reviewing one file at a time.
  • Track review state with pending, approved, rejected, and read markers.
  • Inspect architectural impact before merging large AI-generated patches.

Configuration

Settings

Search for adv.* in VS Code settings. Ollama is optional and only used for local labeling when explicitly configured.

{
  "adv.maxGroups": 8,
  "adv.ollamaModel": "llama2"
}

Development

  1. Clone the repository and run npm install.
  2. Run npm run watch.
  3. Press F5 to launch the extension development host.
  4. Run npm run lint before commit.

Intent Discovery

Log Discovery

ADV scans the workspace root and subdirectories for local agent logs on startup to recover prompt and reasoning context.

  • .cline/history/*.json
  • .aider.chat.history.md
  • logs/
  • .logs/
  • agent/
  • .agent/

Live Integrations

From v0.1.7 onward, ADV also watches VS Code OutputChannels in real time and extracts working intent without extra setup.

  • GitHub Copilot and Copilot Chat
  • Cursor Editor and Cursor Agent
  • Generic Output panels with Goal, Plan, Step, or Action patterns

Design Philosophy

Principles

  • Local-first analysis with no telemetry and no cloud calls unless Ollama is explicitly configured.
  • Heuristic-first semantic grouping with optional local LLM labeling through Ollama.
  • Low-overhead, workspace-local persistence with no external storage dependency.
  • Graceful degradation when intent logs or local models are unavailable.

Roadmap

  • Phase 1 completed: Semantic grouping and review UI.
  • Phase 2 completed: Deeper Cline and Aider intent mapping.
  • Phase 3 completed: Intent drift, topology map, and atomic reversion.
  • Phase 4 planned: Interactive topology visualization.
  • Phase 5 planned: Multi-step diff preview and step-level edit capability.
  • Phase 6 planned: Code snapshot integration for rollback preview.