Full-line red/green backgrounds for diff reviewer (or make configurable) in Codex VS Code extension
Summary
The current diff reviewer in the Codex VS Code extension only highlights the line numbers/gutter with red or green for changes, rather than using full-line red/green background fills. This makes it noticeably harder to scan diffs compared to the traditional stronger background style that most diff tools and previous versions used.
Screenshot for reference:
<img alt="Codex reviewer diff highlighting, only gutter colored" width="1091" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/733a7522-fdbc-4bb7-985b-51f6f71998b1" />
Request
- Option 1: Restore the previous behavior where the entire line for insertions and deletions is highlighted in green/red, not just the line-number gutter.
- Option 2: Make this behavior a configuration option, so users can choose between full line backgrounds and the current subtle accent-on-numbers style.
The current approach is much less readable for large diffs or for users with color-accommodation needs.
Why this matters
Full-line highlights make it significantly easier to spot changes, especially in large or visually dense diffs. Many users are accustomed to, and expect, the more strongly-highlighted red/green lines as seen in traditional diff tools and GitHub's old PR UI.
If performance or accessibility triggered this change, please consider at least making the behavior configurable.
Thanks for considering this request!
5 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
Powered by Codex Action
Couldn't agree more! This recent change makes code diff totally unusable. I need to push code to a PR on GitHub to have a proper code diff and review UI.
And this doesn't seem to be related to the color theme:
Example with Dark 2026 color theme in VSCode:
<img width="830" height="442" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/46ed89b2-b1c9-4fec-be2d-3e11602fbe94" />
Example with Light 2026 color theme in VSCode:
<img width="917" height="428" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/24669f15-6f43-4b80-a4c7-db3f60c72fb7" />
I think the problem was introduced after version 26.325.31654 of the VSCode extension. This is how diff looks like in 26.325.31654:
<img width="886" height="623" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c77d5ec0-b7b9-407b-84d8-211d4ac1447b" />
There are a few bugs I keep running into with the Codex extension, but this regression is one of the biggest issues holding the entire extension back!
The color-coding is FIXED as of '26.422.20832'!