hunkwise

Your future self will thank you. Or blame you. It depends on the diff.

Per-hunk Accept/Discard for any file change in VSCode.

AI coding tools like Claude Code, OpenCode, and other CLI/plugin-based assistants lack a native IDE — unlike Cursor, Windsurf, or Copilot, they have no built-in way to review changes hunk by hunk.

hunkwise fills that gap by bringing per-hunk review controls directly into VSCode for any external file change.

Features

• Tracks file changes from any source (AI tools, scripts, manual edits)
• Per-hunk ✓ Accept | ↺ Discard controls inline in the editor
• Added lines highlighted in green, removed lines highlighted in red
• Sidebar panel lists all pending files with hunk details and batch actions
• New files and deleted files are tracked and displayed
• State persisted across VSCode restarts via a lightweight internal git repo
• Respects .gitignore and custom ignore patterns

Installation

hunkwise uses a proposed VSCode API (editorInsets) and cannot be installed from the marketplace.

Just tell your AI tool:

Run this skill: https://github.com/molon/hunkwise/blob/main/skills/install-hunkwise/SKILL.md

Usage

Enable hunkwise

Click Enable in the hunkwise sidebar panel. hunkwise will snapshot all current workspace files as baselines.

Automatic tracking

Once enabled, any external tool (AI assistant, script, etc.) that writes to a file will automatically trigger review mode for that file.

Reviewing changes

• Click ✓ or ↺ above each hunk in the editor
• Use the hunkwise sidebar panel to:
  • See all files with pending changes
  • Accept or discard individual hunks
  • Accept or discard all changes in a file
  • Accept or discard all changes across all files
• Click a file name in the panel to open it
• Deleted files show a diff view with the original content

Disable hunkwise

Open Settings (gear icon in the panel title bar) and click Disable at the bottom. All tracked state is cleared.

Tip: Stack with Chat panel

You can drag both the hunkwise panel and the Claude Code panel into the Chat panel to stack them as tabs in the same panel group — keeping Claude Code chat and hunk review at a glance.

Commands

Command	Description
hunkwise: Enable	Enable hunkwise and snapshot the workspace
hunkwise: Disable	Disable hunkwise and clear all state
hunkwise: Settings	Open the settings panel

Settings

Settings are stored in .vscode/hunkwise/settings.json and can be changed via the settings panel:

Setting	Default	Description
ignorePatterns	[".git"]	Glob patterns to exclude from tracking
respectGitignore	true	Whether to honor .gitignore rules
clearOnBranchSwitch	false	Automatically clear all pending hunks when git branch changes

.gitignore

When enabled, hunkwise automatically adds .vscode/hunkwise/ to your .gitignore.

How it works

Baseline tracking

When hunkwise is enabled, it snapshots all workspace files into a private git repository at .vscode/hunkwise/git/. This repo stores baselines — the content of each file at the moment hunkwise starts tracking. The repo always has exactly one commit (each mutation does --amend).

When an external tool modifies a file, hunkwise diffs the current content against the stored baseline to produce hunks. Accepting a hunk updates the baseline; discarding a hunk restores the baseline content.

External vs manual change detection

hunkwise distinguishes between:

• External changes (AI tools, scripts): Detected when the file content on disk differs from the open editor buffer. These trigger review mode with inline hunks.
• Manual edits (user typing in VSCode): The editor buffer matches the disk content after save. These silently update the baseline — no hunks shown.

This means you can freely edit files while hunkwise is enabled, and only tool-generated changes will produce hunks.

File rename and delete handling

• Manual rename (via VSCode explorer/API): hunkwise migrates the baseline to the new path. No spurious deletion hunk is shown.
• Manual delete (via VSCode explorer/API): hunkwise removes the baseline. No deletion hunk is shown.
• External delete (tool deletes a file): Shows a deletion hunk so you can review and restore if needed.

Ignore rules

Files can be excluded from tracking via two mechanisms:

1. ignorePatterns in .vscode/hunkwise/settings.json — custom patterns (default: [".git"], plus ".DS_Store" on macOS)
2. .gitignore — when respectGitignore is true (default), workspace .gitignore rules are honored

When ignore rules change (.gitignore modified, or patterns updated via settings), hunkwise automatically:

• Removes baselines for files that are now ignored
• Adds baselines for files that are newly allowed

State persistence

All baseline data is stored in the git repo and survives VSCode restarts. On reactivation, hunkwise reads baselines from git ls-tree HEAD + git show :path to restore in-memory state.

Development

npm run compile          # compile TypeScript
npm run watch            # watch mode
npm test                 # run unit tests (node:test runner)
npm run test:integration # run VSCode integration tests

Unit tests cover diffEngine, hunkwiseGit, and gitignoreManager. They run with Node's built-in test runner and require no additional dependencies.

Integration tests run in a real VSCode extension host via @vscode/test-cli and cover rename/delete handling, .gitignore sync, file watching, and enable/disable lifecycle.