plannotator vs pr-lens
plannotator is much bigger: 9.5k stars against 2.1k. Over the days we have tracked them plannotator moved +32.4% and pr-lens +186.6%, so pr-lens is growing faster right now.
pr-lens leads on noise control and model freedom. plannotator does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
A local, browser-based review surface that plugs directly into many agent hooks so you can annotate plans, diffs, and HTML and send structured feedback back to the agent.
- Stars
- 9.5k
- Tracked growth
- +32.4%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 5h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free, self-hosted; external agent API keys or accounts may be required
Generates animated architecture and data-flow diagrams that visualize a PR’s blast radius and step-by-step walkthroughs directly inside the pull request.
- Stars
- 2.1k
- Tracked growth
- +186.6%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 2d ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Free for open source; otherwise your API key
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | plannotator | pr-lens |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff-focused | ●●●●● Diff + related files |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● No noise controls | ●●●●● Configurable filters |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Config file options | ●●●●● Config file options |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Self-hostable | ●●●●● Cloud API key |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Multiple providers | ●●●●● Bring-your-own key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● One-click App |
Which one to pick
Pick plannotator if…
Local and agent-integrated: pick Plannotator when you want a local browser UI to review agent plans and code diffs and to send feedback directly to the agent.
Pick pr-lens if…
Visual-first — install the GitHub App to get animated architecture and data-flow diagrams posted automatically to every PR so you can understand a change before reading its code.
- Noise control: Configurable filters (3/5 against 1/5)
- Model freedom: Bring-your-own key (5/5 against 3/5)
What people want from each one
backnotprop/plannotator
coldteadotai/pr-lens
Questions people ask
Is plannotator better than pr-lens?
pr-lens leads on noise control and model freedom. plannotator does not take any axis by a clear margin. plannotator is worth picking when local and agent-integrated: pick Plannotator when you want a local browser UI to review agent plans and code diffs and to send feedback directly to the agent.
Which of plannotator and pr-lens keeps my code private?
plannotator: Self-hostable (4/5). pr-lens: Cloud API key (3/5).
What does each one cost to run?
plannotator: Free, self-hosted; external agent API keys or accounts may be required. pr-lens: Free for open source; otherwise your API key.
Full profiles: backnotprop/plannotator and coldteadotai/pr-lens. Everything else in Code review agents.