Diff and Checkout

Review pull request changes with local checkout and diff tooling.

Global options available on all PR commands: --json, --no-color, -w, --workspace, -r, --repo.

bb pr checkout

Checkout a pull request locally. This command fetches the PR’s source branch and checks it out, creating a local tracking branch if needed.

bb pr checkout <id> [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description
id	Pull request ID

Options

Option	Description
-w, --workspace <workspace>	Workspace
-r, --repo <repo>	Repository
--json	Output as JSON

Examples

# Checkout PR #42 to review locally
bb pr checkout 42

# Checkout PR from specific repository
bb pr checkout 42 -w myworkspace -r myrepo

Notes

The command will:

1. Fetch the latest changes from the remote
2. Try to checkout the PR’s source branch
3. If the branch doesn’t exist locally, create a new branch named pr-<id> tracking origin/<source-branch>

---

bb pr diff

View the diff of a pull request. Shows the changes introduced by the PR in unified diff format with syntax highlighting.

bb pr diff [id] [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description
id	Pull request ID (optional - auto-detects from current branch)

Options

Option	Description
-w, --workspace <workspace>	Workspace
-r, --repo <repo>	Repository
--color <when>	Colorize output: auto, always, never (default: auto)
--name-only	Show only names of changed files
--stat	Show diffstat (files changed, insertions, deletions)
--web	Open diff in web browser
--json	Output as JSON

Examples

# View diff for PR #42
bb pr diff 42

# Auto-detect PR from current branch
bb pr diff

# Show only changed file names
bb pr diff 42 --name-only

# Show statistics (like git diff --stat)
bb pr diff 42 --stat

# Open diff in browser
bb pr diff 42 --web

# Return browser URL as JSON
bb pr diff 42 --web --json

# Disable colors for piping to file or other commands
bb pr diff 42 --color never > pr-42.patch

# Get diffstat as JSON for scripting
bb pr diff 42 --stat --json

Notes

• When no ID is provided, the command searches for an open PR where the source branch matches your current git branch
• The --stat output shows files changed with insertions (+) and deletions (-)
• -w remains the global short alias for --workspace; use --web (long form) to open the diff in a browser
• Use --color never when piping output to files or other commands
• Use the global --no-color flag to disable color output for all command formatting
• The diff is colorized by default when output is a terminal (green for additions, red for deletions, cyan for hunk headers)