MR Buddy

VS Code extension that fills the gap in GitLab's web UI: filter merge requests you're a reviewer on by whether you've approved them yet.

Features

• Reviewing — all open MRs where you're a reviewer, with [approved/total] count
• Needs My Approval — reviewer MRs you haven't approved yet (the filter GitLab's web UI lacks)
• Authored by Me — your open MRs
• Assigned to Me — MRs assigned to you
• Search / filter across all sections at once — by author, title, MR number, project or branch
• Hover tooltip shows per-reviewer approval status
• Inline Approve action, Open in browser, Copy URL
• Auto-refresh on a configurable interval
• Works with self-hosted GitLab (set mrBuddy.gitlabHost)

Install

Search for MR Buddy in the VS Code Extensions view, or install from the Marketplace listing.

The MR Buddy icon will appear in the activity bar after install.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/nuwanprabhath/mr-buddy.git
cd mr-buddy
npm install
npm run install-local

install-local deletes any stale .vsix, builds a fresh one, and installs it.

Alternatively, install via the UI: Cmd+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX… → select the generated .vsix.

Sign in

1. Cmd+Shift+P → MR Buddy: Sign In to GitLab
2. Enter your GitLab host (default: https://gitlab.com)
3. Paste a Personal Access Token with scopes api and read_user — create one at https://gitlab.com/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens

Updating after code changes

npm install
npm run install-local

Then reload the window: Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window.

Searching

Click the 🔍 icon in any section's title bar (or press Cmd+Alt+F / Ctrl+Alt+F while an MR Buddy view is focused). The list filters live as you type, across all four sections at once.

Section headers show 3 of 12 — <query> while a filter is active. Clear it with the ✖ button in the title bar.

How "Needs My Approval" works

The GitLab REST API has no approved_by_me=false filter, but /projects/:id/merge_requests/:iid/approvals returns who has approved each MR. MR Buddy fetches that per reviewer-MR and filters client-side — no scraping needed.

Configuration