GitHub QoL
Small Chrome extension (Manifest V3, no build step) with quality-of-life tweaks for github.com. Every feature can be switched off from the toolbar popup.
Website: https://taanviir.github.io/github-qol/
Features
| Feature | What it does |
|---|
| Image lightbox | Clicking an image in a PR, issue, comment or README opens it in an in-page popup instead of a new tab. ← / → step through every image on the page, Esc closes, and clicking the image toggles full size. Ctrl/Cmd/middle-click still opens a new tab. |
| GIF player | Animated GIF/WebP images in the lightbox get pause/play (Space), frame-by-frame stepping (, / .) and 0.25×–2× speed. |
| Annotate screenshots | In a comment box, Ctrl+Shift+V (Cmd+Shift+V on macOS) with a screenshot on the clipboard opens an editor with arrow, box, pen, text and redact tools before attaching. Plain Ctrl+V is unchanged. |
| Diff tools | "Collapse all" / "Expand all" buttons on Files changed. v marks the current file as viewed and jumps to the next unviewed file. |
| Collapse lockfiles | Lockfiles, snapshots, minified, source-map and generated files start collapsed, tagged "auto-collapsed". |
| Absolute dates | Timestamps older than a day show the date and time ("Oct 3, 2026, 2:20 PM") instead of "last week". |
| Load all hidden items | Adds one button on long PRs and issues that keeps clicking "Load more" until the whole timeline is shown. |
| Clickable file paths | Inline code like src/app.ts:42 in comments links to that file and line. It's only linked if the file exists, and on PRs the PR's branch is tried first. |
| Sticky blame view | Switch a file to Blame and other files you open stay in Blame until you switch back to Code. |
| File sizes | The repo file list shows each file's size next to its name, so you know before opening it. |
| Previous / next PR | Arrow buttons in the PR header, next to Code, or [ and ], go to the previous or next PR without the PR list. Numbers that are issues are skipped, and you stay on the same tab (Files changed, Commits). |
| Extra shortcuts | g r releases, g t tags, g b branches, g h commit history, g o settings. These fill gaps in GitHub's own g shortcuts. |
Install
- Download
github-qol.zip from the latest release and unzip it
- Open
chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode
- Click Load unpacked and pick the unzipped
github-qol folder
To work on it, load this repo folder directly instead. After editing, hit the reload icon on the extension card and refresh the GitHub tab.
Releasing
- Bump
version in manifest.json
./scripts/package.sh builds dist/github-qol.zipgh release create vX.Y.Z dist/github-qol.zip --title vX.Y.Z --notes "..."
The site's Download links point at releases/latest/download/github-qol.zip, so they pick up new releases automatically.
Layout
src/core.js: shared helpers (settings, DOM-change scanning, URL-change hooks). Loaded first.src/*.js: one file per feature, each calling ghqol.register(key, init).src/background.js: fetches image bytes for the GIF player and file sizes, since content scripts can't read githubusercontent.com directly.scripts/package.sh: builds the release zip.popup/: the toggles. Feature keys must match DEFAULTS in core.js.
Notes
- Diff tools support both versions of Files changed: the classic page (
/pull/N/files) and the newer React review page (/pull/N/changes) that most signed-in accounts get.
- File sizes asks for one byte of each listed file (capped at 300 per folder) and reads the total size from the reply. It uses your GitHub session, so private repos work.
- Clickable file paths sends one HEAD request per candidate path, capped at 60 per page.
- Previous / next PR sends a HEAD request to
/pull/N for nearby numbers (up to 50 each way) to find which ones are PRs.
