git status, git diff, and gh pr list — the three you'll run daily

Reading what AI just did is half the job. These three commands cover 90% of your daily inspection:

git status

Shows the four categories of files (staged, modified, untracked, unmerged). The shortcut form is git status --porcelain — machine- readable, one file per line, two-character status codes. This is what scripts (and AI agents) parse. Use the human form when reading, porcelain when scripting.

git diff

By default shows the working tree vs staging — what you'd lose if you discarded changes. Two key variations:

• git diff --staged — shows what'll go into the next commit
• git diff main...HEAD — full diff of your branch against main

When Cursor commits something you don't trust, run git diff HEAD~1 — that's "what did the last commit change?" You'll catch the wrong-files- staged bug in 30 seconds.

gh pr list and gh pr view

git doesn't know GitHub exists; gh does. Lists open PRs in your repo, shows the diff of any one of them, lets you check out a PR locally with gh pr checkout 142. AI builders live in this command — it's how you review PRs without leaving the terminal.

A useful rule

If you can read git status and git diff --staged, you can catch almost every commit Cursor messes up before it lands. Both commands are read-only. They cost nothing to run. Run them constantly.

Run the editor. We parse a status snapshot and a list of open PRs.