Accelerate PR Reviews

Last updated: September 2026

Reviewing pull requests (PRs) in the browser can interrupt your workflow. Switching tabs, checking email notifications, and managing local branches can be time-consuming—especially when the PRs aren’t even relevant to you.

GitLens helps streamline PR reviews directly inside Visual Studio Code. With Launchpad and Worktrees, you can:

• View all relevant PRs grouped by actionable categories.
• Avoid context switching with an integrated experience.
• Work across multiple branches using separate working directories.

Launchpad PRO

To use Launchpad:

1. Connect a supported integration: GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, GitLab Self-Hosted, Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Server, Bitbucket, or Bitbucket Data Center.
2. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P).
3. Run: GitLens: Open Launchpad.

Launchpad displays grouped pull requests:

• On your current branch
• Assigned to you for review
• Waiting for follow-up
• Blocked or in draft

To find a pull request that isn’t in these groups, select Search for Pull Request… and enter a search term. Launchpad searches every connected integration. For Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Server, and Bitbucket Data Center, the term matches pull request titles and descriptions. Bitbucket Data Center searches only the repositories of the remotes in your open workspace. You can also paste a pull request’s URL to open that pull request directly, including URLs from Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Server, Bitbucket, and Bitbucket Data Center.

To start reviewing:

• Select a PR.
• Choose Open in Worktree or Switch to Branch or Worktree.

Open the Launchpad in GitLens

Start Review PRO

The Start Review command provides a quick-pick wizard for jumping into a pull request review. It walks you through selecting an integration, picking a PR, and choosing how to check it out (as a branch or in a new worktree). You can also optionally open an AI chat with a review prompt to assist your review.

To use Start Review:

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P).
2. Run: GitLens: Start Review.
3. Select your integration and pull request.
4. When AI features are enabled, choose how to continue: Open in an agent, Continue manually, or Open in Kepler when Kepler supports the pull request’s provider. To skip this step next time, select Always use this choice before you choose. GitLens saves your choice to the gitlens.ai.openInAgent setting.
5. Unless you opened the pull request in Kepler, choose your checkout method.

If GitLens can’t find a local copy of the pull request’s repository, it asks how to find it. Select Clone Repository… to clone it into a folder you choose, or Choose a Local Folder… to point GitLens at an existing clone. If the folder you choose doesn’t look like a clone of that repository, GitLens asks you to confirm before using it.

Worktrees

Worktrees let you check out multiple branches simultaneously in separate working directories. This means you don’t need to commit or stash in-progress changes before switching to another branch—perfect for reviewing pull requests without disrupting your workflow.

After opening a worktree, use the Pull Request sidebar to:

• Review all commits in the PR
• Explore changed files
• View diffs and inspect updates line by line

Open the Worktree View in GitLens