Review commit history and diffs on your computer from your phone

I have a repeating “away from my desk” question:

What changed?

Not “what’s the perfect architecture?”

Not “what should we refactor next?”

Just: what changed, where, and do I trust it.

This comes up when:

a teammate pings you about a regression
CI fails on a branch you haven’t looked at in days
you’re in the middle of a release
you’re reviewing your own changes from earlier

If the only way to answer is “remote desktop into my computer”, I usually procrastinate.

This guide is the workflow I use to make “review recent commits” possible from a phone.

What I tried first (and where I bounced off)

SSH: great for quick commands, but not great for visual diff review on a phone.
Remote desktop: works, but heavy and distracting.
Git hosting apps: great when the change is already in a PR. But sometimes you want to review a repo on your computer regardless of where it’s hosted (or before it’s pushed).

A workflow that worked for me

I ended up using a “remote UI over my computer” approach.

Happier is one option that supports that approach.

In Projects, you can open a repo folder and use:

Source control → History → Recent commits
then open a commit and review its diff

Trade-off: your computer still has to be online.

If you’re new to Happier (what it is, and where to get it)

If you haven’t seen Happier before: it’s an open-source companion app (mobile/web/desktop) that lets you keep workflows on a computer you trust, then manage them from your phone.

Get set up:

GitHub: https://github.com/happier-dev/happier
Install/download: https://github.com/happier-dev/happier#how-it-works
Discord: https://discord.gg/W6Pb8KuHfg

Step-by-step: review commit history from your phone

1) Add the repo as a Project

Open Projects.
Tap ADD A PROJECT.
Tap Choose a folder on your computer.
In Select Path, navigate to the repo folder.
Tap Use.

2) Open Source control → History

Inside the project:

Tap Source control.
Tap History.

You’ll see:

Recent commits
a Load more commits action

3) Open a commit and review the diff

My phone review loop is simple:

open the most recent commit
skim the commit message (intent)
open the highest-risk file first
decide: “looks good” vs “needs follow-up”

If you need “why did this happen?”, you can jump from history into:

Changed files for the current working tree

4) Use Files when you need context

History tells you what changed.

Sometimes you also need “what is this file?” context.

That’s when I open:

Files

Search, open the file, read it, and go back.

5) Make a follow-up decision

Most review workflows fail because they don’t end with an action.

From a phone, the actions I like are:

leave a review comment
ask for a one-paragraph rationale for a change
queue a small fix
or decide “this is fine” and move on

Terminal (optional)

In Projects, you also have a fully-featured terminal accessible on the terminal icon in the project page header (on the right).

I use it when I need a one-off command (git show, git grep, etc.), but I try to keep the default workflow UI-first.

FAQ

Why would I use History instead of just looking at Changed files?

Changed files answers: “what is currently dirty in this working tree?”

History answers: “what happened over time?”

Both are useful; they answer different questions.

How far back can I go?

Use Load more commits.

Do merge commits show diffs?

In raw Git, merge commits often don’t show diffs unless you ask for a specific merge diff format.

If you’re reviewing merges, be extra deliberate about what you want to inspect (first-parent view vs combined diffs). (Source: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-log)

Can I review commit history without pushing to GitHub?

Yes.

That’s one of the core benefits of a Projects workflow: you can review what’s on your computer, not only what’s already pushed.

What’s the biggest failure mode?

The host computer goes offline.

If you can’t reliably keep the repo machine online, no phone workflow will feel stable.

How do I answer “what changed between these two points” from my phone?

Two practical approaches:

Open the two commits in History and review their diffs one at a time.
If you need a true “compare A…B” diff, use the Terminal for a one-off git diff <a>..<b>.

I treat the terminal as an escape hatch — useful, but not the default.

How do I find “the commit that introduced this bug”?

From a phone, the fastest path is usually:

start from the file you suspect
scan recent commits that touched it
narrow to a small window

If you need a real bisect, that’s usually a keyboard task.

Can I review commit history for repos that aren’t on GitHub?

Yes.

Projects is about folders on your computer.

If the folder is a Git repo, you can review history whether it’s hosted on GitHub, GitLab, a self-hosted remote, or nowhere.

Is History read-only, or can I make changes from there?

History is a review surface.

If you decide you want to change something:

open Files to edit
then use Source control → Changed files to review and commit

Why are commit messages truncated on a phone?

Because the UI has to fit.

If a commit message is truncated, I treat it as a signal to:

tap into the commit details
and rely more on the diff than the message

How do I review large changesets without losing the thread?

A phone-friendly trick:

review only the top 1–3 “risk files” first (auth, config, migrations, lockfiles)
leave a review comment for anything you want revisited
stop after you’ve made a decision

If you try to do a perfect review of 200 files on a phone, you’ll burn time and still miss things.

Can I use this workflow to review what an AI agent changed?

Yes — that’s one of the nicest uses.

If a long session made changes yesterday, History helps you answer “what actually landed?” before you decide what to do next.

When should I use a repo hosting app instead?

If the change already exists as a PR, a hosting app can be great.

I reach for Projects History when:

the changes aren’t pushed yet
I’m reviewing my own local commits
I want the same workflow regardless of where the repo is hosted