GitHub Attention Set

Know whose turn it is on every PR — inspired by Google's Critique

What is Attention Set?

Code review is turn-based. At any point, someone is blocking progress — either the author needs to address feedback, or a reviewer needs to respond. Attention Set tells you whose turn it is.

Google's internal code review tool (Critique) has had this concept for years. GitHub doesn't. This extension brings it to GitHub.

How It Works

The extension monitors PR activity and computes who currently needs to act:

Event	Who enters the attention set
Reviewer submits a review	Author
Someone leaves a comment (debounced, default 10 min)	Author
Author re-requests review	Reviewer
Author replies to a comment (debounced)	Reviewer
@mention someone	That person

Leaving the attention set: You leave automatically once you take action (reply, review, push, etc.).

Filtering: Bot accounts and org/team mentions are automatically excluded.

Features

• 🔴 Badge shows count of PRs needing your attention
• Popup grouped by status: Needs your attention / Waiting on others
• Optional group by repo
• Dismiss PRs (auto-restores on new activity)
• Relative timestamps
• Repo filter (show only / hide specific repos)
• Dark mode support
• 30+ languages
• All data stays local — nothing synced to Google servers

Install

Chrome Web Store: Install GitHub Attention Set

Manual (development):

git clone https://github.com/justinchuby/github-attention-set.git
cd github-attention-set
npm install

Then load as unpacked extension in chrome://extensions (enable Developer mode).

Setup

1. Create a fine-grained Personal Access Token at github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new
2. Grant permissions:
   • Pull requests → Read
   • Issues → Read
3. Open the extension options and paste your token

Privacy

• Token stored in chrome.storage.local only (never synced to Google)
• All GitHub API calls made over HTTPS
• No data sent to any third party
• No analytics or tracking of any kind

Development

npm install
npm test

Load the extension as unpacked in chrome://extensions with Developer mode enabled.

References

• Google's Critique: Chapter 19 — Software Engineering at Google — Original concept of the Attention Set
• Gerrit Code Review — Attention Set — Open-source implementation in Gerrit

License

MIT