---
title: "Review notes"
description: "Pin comments to diff lines, then hand the whole set to an AI agent as one instruction."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gitlane.space/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Review notes

Review notes are local comments pinned to a range of diff lines. They exist
for one purpose: turning "here's what's wrong with this diff" into a message
an AI coding agent can act on — without you retyping the file paths and line
numbers.

> **Notes are session-only**
>
> Comments are never written to disk. They live for the session and vanish
> when you close GitLane. **The composed message is the artefact**, not the
> notes — copy it or send it before you move on.

## Writing a note

Drag across the lines you want in any diff — the commit review, the stacked
review, or the working-changes inspector — and write your comment. A note can
cover a single line or a contiguous range, and it captures the selected
source alongside your text.

Notes anchor to a **side and line reference** rather than a raw offset:
`R20` for a line on the new side, `L4` on the old side, and `R18–R20` for a
range. That's why a note survives a diff refresh — the reference stays
meaningful even if the diff re-flows.

Deletions belong to the old side; additions and context lines to the new
side, matching how the diff body numbers each rendered line.

## Handing off

Once you have a note or two, the docked **Hand to agent** bar opens the
handoff dialog. It shows:

- **Every pending comment**, each removable — including any whose lines
  disappeared after a refresh, which have no other UI to reach them
- **A composed message**, ordered by file, then line, then side, so it reads
  in a stable order rather than the order you happened to write the notes
- **An agent picker**, listing the agents you enabled in Settings

The composed message is fully editable. Once you type in it, GitLane stops
regenerating it — removing a note from the list won't clobber what you wrote.

Then either:

| Action | Result |
| --- | --- |
| **Copy** | The message goes to your clipboard |
| **Send** | The message is typed into the integrated terminal, launching the selected agent |

Only comments from the surface that opened the dialog are handed off, so
reviewing one commit doesn't sweep in notes you left on another.

## The message format

Each note becomes a numbered block naming the file, the line or range, and
your feedback:

```text
1. src/store/repo.ts — lines R18–R20
   Feedback: this refetches on every keystroke — debounce it

2. src/lib/api/git.ts — line R44
   Feedback: swallowing the error here hides a real failure
```

Plain text, deliberately. It's readable to you before you send it, and
unambiguous to an agent after.

## Agents

The picker lists agents from Settings → **Terminal Agents**, greying out any
whose command isn't on your `PATH`. If you haven't enabled any, the dialog
says so and Copy still works.

[Configuring agents →](/guides/settings)

> **Different from pull-request comments**
>
> Review notes are local and never leave your machine unless you send them.
> They are not GitHub review comments — for those, use the pull-request view.
> [Pull requests →](/guides/pull-requests)

Source: https://docs.gitlane.space/guides/review-notes/index.mdx