Comment anywhere in a changed file feedback

[willsmythe]

Important

This feature is currently in public preview and is rolling out gradually on a per-repository basis. It is available only from the new "Files changed" page.

Using the new "Files changed" page, you can now comment on any line of a changed file. Previously, you could only comment on the three lines surrounding a change.

To add a comment to an unchanged line of any file changed in a pull request:

1. Navigate to the new "Files changed" page.
2. Select a changed file and expand all or part of the diff to reveal unchanged lines.
3. Click the + on a line and add your comment or include a suggested change, just like you normally would.

These comments will appear on the new "Files changed" and the "Conversation" pages.

Considerations

1. If using the classic "Files changed" page to view a pull request with comments on unchanged lines, a warning message will appear explaining that there are additional comments only available on the new page.
2. These comments can only be added to files already changed (i.e., not unchanged files).
3. API support is currently limited, but comments on unchanged lines will be returned by existing APIs and in webhook events.
4. This feature changes the positioning logic for comments in general. If you notice any issues with comment positioning, let us know.

[ngnpope]

Thank you for this - something we've been waiting for for a long time.

Alas, it seems that the "commits" tab is still lacking most of the features present on the "files changed" tab, including this. (Another is the missing suggestion button such that the code fences have to be typed manually and the original code copy-pasted in before editing.)

Commit-by-commit review is the only sensible way to review many pull requests and these useful features are not even available. When it's the way that I interact with pull requests 95%+ of the time, it's just endless frustration.

[inkblotty]

Thank you for letting us know this is a blocker for you @ngnpope 🙏 We have Commit-by-Commit reviewing on our roadmap for the Files Changed page.

[RubenGamarrarodriguez-tomtom]

When possible with git I try to have a way of working where in the team, when reviewing pull request, is possible to review what the pull request shows as a change and avoid reviewing commit-by-commit. For that the workflow is to have a pr with only one commit and automation with regression for CI/CD. Depends on the case but in my experience the time it takes reviewing changes one by one can be assigned to tasks that bring more value.

Would be good to know how the comment anywhere is being used in this cases or reviewing pull-requests.

[mgu-voyado]

This just made my day! I'm very excited to try it out

[CosmicHorrorDev]

Why did you use an AI to make the image showing off the feature in the blog post instead of -- oh i dunno -- taking a picture while using the feature?

[workingjubilee]

I came here to post this same comment. It is very obvious on close scrutiny of the text that it is generated by an artificial neural network because it has the key "unable to determine whether a 'w' is a 'w' or 'iv'" flaw, along with a few similar errors. This does not happen normally in fonts because in general fonts are designed to deliberately differentiate things like that:

I am very happy with this feature and very disappointed it is being sold in a way that is fake and not real. Do I now need to subject the entirety of GitHub to the same close scrutiny? Use an actual screenshot of actually using the feature.

[workingjubilee]

The image is 2.5MB, too, so this sure ain't something like compression artifacts.

[jdonszelmann]

the 2.5MB is funny cause the image itself being quite low-quality and blurry, I have to zoom in to make out what's in there and that only reveals the weird text

[MrSmoothieHuman1]

wow, a microsoft-owned product doing the most convoluted bare minimum? who could have ever seen that coming!
(one of these days i need to move over to codeberg)

[mhm13dev]

Is there a plan to extend the ability to comment on files that are not changed in the PR.

I needed this today, as some logic needed to be updated in a different file which was missed and had no changes in this PR.

[DuoKristina]

Thank you so much! This has been my biggest gripe with the review experience.

[harjotgill]

Is there an ETA for when this will be rolled out for all repositories?

[willsmythe]

The feature has been rolled out everywhere. You do need to "switch to the new experience" (link on the Files Changed page) to add or view these comments.

[joshuadeakin]

Thanks for this! I've noticed a couple issues with it:

1. If the suggestion is outside the three lines surrounding a change, the suggestion box doesn't show the original contents of the line:

2. If the suggestion is partially in the three lines surrounding a change but partially outside of it, the following two things happen:
   a. It initially shows a very buggy suggestion box with incorrect line numbers, far too many lines, and even includes the @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ lines.
   (for context, in the following screenshots my suggested change is to delete lines 52-53 and add a new line after line 55. Line 55 is within the three lines surrounding a change, but lines 52-54 aren't.)

b. Then, after creating the suggestion and coming back to it, the suggestion box changes to exclude the lines that aren't in the three lines surrounding a change.

[diego2390]

Commit-by-commit review is the only sensible way to review many pull requests and these useful features are not even available. When it's the way that I interact with pull requests 95%+ of the time, it's just endless frustration.