PR Pulse: GitHub PR Age & Complexity Extension
Free Chrome extension showing PR age badges and complexity scores on GitHub. Color-coded indicators help spot stale PRs instantly. Zero data collection, fully customizable.
Spot Stale PRs Instantly on GitHub
PR Pulse adds color-coded age badges and complexity scores directly to GitHub pull request pages. See which PRs need attention at a glance.
Add to Chrome - It's FreeOur Take
Long-lived PRs are technical debt hiding in plain sight.
Every day a PR sits open, it accumulates merge conflicts, drifts from the codebase, and loses context in the author's mind. Research shows PRs open longer than 3 days have significantly higher defect rates and lower review quality. Making age visible turns it into something teams can actually act on.
"PRs over 1,000 lines receive 18x less scrutiny per line than small PRs."
— CodePulse research on 3.4 million PRs
See It In Action
Features
PR Age Badges
Color-coded badges show PR age at a glance. Green for fresh (<24h), yellow for getting stale (1-3d), red for needs attention (>3d).
Complexity Scores
See PR complexity based on files changed and lines of code. Low, Medium, High, or Critical ratings help prioritize reviews.
Fully Customizable
Set your own age thresholds, configure complexity scoring, and toggle badges on/off for different page types.
What The Age Colors Mean
These thresholds are fully customizable in the extension settings.
Complexity Score Breakdown
| Level | Lines Changed | Review Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Low | <100 lines | Quick review, low risk |
| Medium | 100-400 lines | Moderate attention needed |
| High | 400-1000 lines | Thorough review, consider pairing |
| Critical | >1000 lines | Consider splitting the PR |
How to Install
Add to Chrome
Click the button above to visit the Chrome Web Store and add the extension.
Visit GitHub
Navigate to any GitHub repository's pull request list or detail page.
See Badges
Age and complexity badges appear automatically. Click the extension icon to customize.
Privacy First, Always
We built PR Pulse with privacy as a core principle. The extension processes everything locally in your browser and never sends data anywhere.
- No analytics or tracking of any kind
- No external network requests
- Settings stored only in your local browser storage
- Open source and auditable
Why PR Age Matters
Research consistently shows that long-lived pull requests are correlated with lower code quality and team productivity issues:
- Higher defect rates: PRs open longer than 3 days have significantly more bugs introduced, partly because authors lose context over time.
- Lower review quality: Reviewers tend to rubber-stamp old PRs to clear their queue, leading to less thorough feedback.
- Increased merge conflicts: The longer a PR sits, the more the target branch changes, creating integration headaches.
- Developer frustration: Old PRs blocking feature work create context-switching costs and reduce team velocity.
Related Resources
How to Reduce PR Cycle Time
Actionable strategies to speed up your code review process.
Code Reviewer Best Practices
How to give effective code reviews that help your team grow.
Cycle Time Calculator
Break down where time is spent in your PR workflow.
PR Size Analyzer
Analyze PR sizes and get recommendations for optimal review.
Ready to Stop Missing Stale PRs?
Install PR Pulse in seconds and start seeing which pull requests need attention. Free forever, no account required.
Add to Chrome - It's FreeFrequently Asked Questions
Yes, PR Pulse is completely free and always will be. There are no premium tiers, no feature limits, and no data collection. The extension is built by CodePulse as a community tool to help engineering teams ship better code faster.
Want to track this automatically?
CodePulse connects to your GitHub and calculates these metrics in real-time. No more manual data entry or spreadsheets.
Free tier available. No credit card required.
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