Better GitHub

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Better GitHub is a Chrome extension that enhances the GitHub experience. Inspired by Refined GitHub, it focuses on the improvements people use most without making too many intrusive changes to GitHub. Keeping it simple makes it easier to maintain in the long run.

Open source and zero-tracking — no analytics, no telemetry; all your data stays in your browser. (Some features require a GitHub token with the repo scope.)

Features Overview

• Contributor profile insights — quickly tell whether a contributor is just an "AI-coding account that spams low-quality commits."
• Better PR and issue lists — sort by most recently updated, with branch names, conflict warnings, review status, and diff stats all at a glance.
• Repository extras — release asset download counts, a dedicated Releases tab, hover previews for watcher/fork/star counts, plus commit tags and diff stats.

Note: GitHub frequently A/B tests features, some of which do not even appear under Feature Preview. To keep the project maintainable, we will limit the number of features we add. If you run into a problem, please file an issue.

Without Better GitHub	With Better GitHub

Feature Details

Home

• Better Top Repositories — Auto-expand the "Top repositories" sidebar list and pin your favorite repos to the top. Works on the dashboard, feed page, and navigation drawer.

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PRs and issues

• Default Sort by Updated — Sort PR and issue lists by recently updated instead of GitHub's default creation time order. No more missing active PRs.

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• PR Branch Names — Display source branch name next to each PR title. Click to copy.

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• PR Conflict Indicator — Show a warning on PR list items that have merge conflicts. This is a read-only status and does not create or modify repository labels. Requires a token.

• PR Review Status — Show review thread resolution status (resolved / unresolved) on the PR list. Only appears on PRs that have review threads; PRs without any review comments won't show a badge. Draft PRs are also excluded.

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• PR Diff Stats — Show additions, deletions, and changed file count (e.g. +223 −114 · 5 files) on each row of the PR list. Requires a token.

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• PR Label Position — Move labels to the front of PR titles for better visibility and scanning.

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PR details

• PR Approve Now — Add an "approve now" shortcut to the Reviewers sidebar on PR detail pages for quick approval. Requires a token.

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• Collapse/Expand All Files — Add buttons to the diff toolbar to collapse or expand all file diffs in one click, plus a button inside the file tree to collapse or expand all folders. Works on PR, commit, and compare pages, and compatible with both the old and the new "Files changed" experience.

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Profile

• Contributor Card — Hover a username to append account age, follower/following counts, relation to the current repo (first-time vs. returning contributor), PR history, and last-year activity to GitHub's native hovercard. Following 20,000 or more users shows a possible mass-following hint based only on that count. The activity row requires a token.

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Commits

• Commit Tags — Show git tags as badges on the commits list page, so you can instantly see which commits are tagged releases.

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• Commit Diff Stats — Show additions, deletions, and changed file count (e.g. +223 −114 · 5 files) on each row of the commits list page. Requires a token.

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Repository

• Release Asset Downloads — Show the download count for every release asset, including zero-download assets that GitHub may leave blank. GitHub's native counts are still rolling out; disable this feature in the extension options if both counts appear.

• Releases Tab — Add a Releases tab to the repository navigation bar for quick access.

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• Watch/Fork/Star Popup — Hover over the Watch, Fork, or Star counts on a repo page to preview the full list of watchers, forks, or stargazers in a popup, with "View all" links to the full pages. Results are cached for 5 minutes to minimize API calls.

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• Recent Commit Message Color — Highlight recent commits with color based on their age, making it easy to spot the latest changes. Always on.

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Features that cannot be disabled

A few small features have little impact on the page experience. To avoid adding too many settings, they stay enabled after you install the extension:

• Recent Commit Message Color
• Copy PR/Issue numbers

Installation

Chrome Web Store

Chrome Web Store - Better GitHub

Build from Source

1. Clone the repo and build:

   pnpm install
   pnpm build

2. Open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and select the dist folder.

Configuration

Right-click the extension icon → Options:

• GitHub Token — A classic personal access token for private repos and review status. Needs repo scope. Create one here.
• Feature Toggles — Enable or disable each feature individually. Changes take effect immediately.