Developer documentation

CLI reference

Commands, comparison refs, and viewer flags.

Run Glimpse from a Git repository. Use glimpse --help for the installed version's command list.

Compare changes

Command	Comparison
`glimpse`	Staged and unstaged changes
`glimpse HEAD~1`	Changes since the previous commit
`glimpse main`	Working tree against main
`glimpse main..feature`	Two refs
`glimpse main feature`	Two refs, positional form
`glimpse --base main --compare feature`	Two refs, explicit form
`glimpse v1.0.0 v2.0.0`	Two release tags

Commits, branches, and tags are accepted wherever a ref is expected.

Viewer options

Flag	Default	Purpose
`--base <ref>`	None	Base ref
`--compare <ref>`	Working tree	Comparison ref
`--port <number>`	Auto, starting at 5391	Listen port
`--no-open`	false	Do not launch the browser
`--dark`	true	Use `--dark=false` for light mode
`--unified`	false	Use a unified rather than split diff
`--quiet`	false	Reduce terminal output
`--new`	false	Stop the existing instance and start fresh

Other commands

glimpse tree                       # browse files without a diff
glimpse list                       # list running instances
glimpse list --json                # machine-readable instance list
glimpse review --focus security    # review through the Claude CLI
glimpse resolve                   # print open diff comments
glimpse resolve abc123             # print one comment
glimpse resolve-tree              # print open tree comments
glimpse init                      # create the config file
glimpse version                   # print version information

review needs a running diff instance and a working claude command. resolve and resolve-tree print feedback for an agent; they do not edit code by themselves. See workflows for the skill-based workflow.

Multiple repositories

Each repository gets a free port. Existing instances are reused. Inspect the actual URL using glimpse list; do not assume every project uses port 5391. Use --new when changing the comparison or refreshing a captured diff.