PullerBear is a VS Code extension that watches your Git remote, summarizes incoming commits with AI, and gives you a chat interface to ask follow-up questions before you pull.

Important: PullerBear uses OpenRouter, so you should choose the model you want to use and set both pullerBear.apiKey and pullerBear.model in VS Code settings. The default model is openrouter/free, but you can switch it to any OpenRouter model slug you prefer.

• Monitors your repository on an interval and fetches remote updates.
• Detects when your branch is behind a target remote branch.
• Generates an AI summary of incoming changes.
• Shows summaries in a dedicated sidebar view: PullerBear → What's New.
• Lets you manually refresh with the reload button.
• Provides a chat box to ask questions about recent commit reviews.
• Clears summaries/chat review data after a detected pull/update.

• VS Code 1.110.0 or newer.
• Built-in Git extension enabled (vscode.git).
• Network access to https://openrouter.ai.
• OpenRouter API key (set in pullerBear.apiKey).
• OpenRouter model slug (set in pullerBear.model if you do not want the default).

1. In VS Code settings, set pullerBear.apiKey to your OpenRouter key and optionally set pullerBear.model to the model slug you want to use.
2. Package the extension:
   • npm install
   • npx vsce package Note: If see WARNING LICENSE, LICENSE.md, or LICENSE.txt not found, please answer y to continue.
3. Download the packaged link to your local device.
4. In VS Code, open Extensions view.
5. Click ... (top-right) → Install from VSIX...
6. Select the downloaded .vsix file.
7. In the left side bar, still on Extensions tab, look for PullerBear on search bar and click it.

Before you start: PullerBear reads the AI model from the extension setting pullerBear.model. We recommend leaving it on the default openrouter/free first, then switching to another OpenRouter model slug later if you want different speed, quality, or rate-limit behavior.

1. Open a Git repository in VS Code.
2. Open the PullerBear activity bar icon.
3. In What's New, wait for automatic checks or click the reload icon.
4. When remote commits are detected, read the generated summary cards.
5. Use the chat box at the bottom to ask questions about the latest reviews.

Configure in Settings (Ctrl + ,), by searching PullerBear in extensions section, or in settings.json.

{
  "pullerBear.fetchIntervalMinutes": 5,
  "pullerBear.commitWindowMinutes": 60,
  "pullerBear.warningCommitThreshold": 3,
  "pullerBear.hardStopCommitThreshold": 8,
  "pullerBear.branchRef": "main",
  "pullerBear.model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
  "pullerBear.apiKey": "sk-or-v1-..."
}

• PullerBear fetches remote data at your configured interval.
• If you're behind the target branch, it computes incoming changes and generates a summary.

• Click the reload icon in the What's New header.
• This triggers an immediate manual check for all monitored repositories.

• If incoming activity is too high, PullerBear warns or stops summarization based on your thresholds.
• This avoids low-signal AI output during very high commit volume periods.

• When PullerBear detects your local HEAD moved forward and behind count dropped, it treats it as a pull/sync.
• It clears current summary cards and resets pullerBear_reviews.json.

• The input at the bottom sends your question to PullerBear.
• PullerBear answers based on stored review data.
• If AI fails or the API key is missing, an error is shown in chat.

• Diff content and questions are sent to OpenRouter for AI processing.
• PullerBear writes review data to pullerBear_reviews.json in your workspace root.
• Treat this file as generated data; decide whether to add it to .gitignore based on your workflow.

• Set pullerBear.apiKey in VS Code settings.
• Reload VS Code window after updating if needed.

• Check network connectivity and Git authentication.
• Run git fetch manually in terminal to confirm credentials.

• Ensure your branch is behind pullerBear.branchRef.
• Click reload to force a manual check.
• Lower thresholds if summaries are being blocked by activity limits.

• Confirm built-in Git extension is enabled.
• Ensure you're in a folder/workspace with a Git repository.

npm install
npm run compile
npm test

Useful scripts:

• npm run compile – typecheck + lint + bundle.
• npm run watch – watch TypeScript and bundle rebuilds.
• npm run package – production bundle.
• npm run test – run extension tests.

Run extension locally:

1. Open this project in VS Code.
2. Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
3. Open a Git repo in the new window and use PullerBear.

npx vsce package

For Marketplace publishing, set a publisher in package.json, authenticate with vsce, and run npx vsce publish.

• Summary quality depends on diff quality and AI response consistency.
• Large/high-frequency repos may hit threshold stops by design.
• Network/API outages will fall back to non-AI status messaging.

If you find issues or want feature enhancements, open an issue in the project repository.