---
title: Introducing Pipe it Down
teaser: 'Sometimes pull requests are full of noise and it''s difficult to cut through
  to what matters. Pipe it Down is a Chrome extension to help with that.

  '
tags: devtools,unity,productivity
author: Chris Thorn
published_on: 2017-03-08
---

We've been working with virtual reality in Unity3D quite a bit lately and one of
the big pain points we've encountered is having lots of diff noise in our pull
requests.

Unity saves information about your 3D models and scenes in meta files, which are
binary by default, but can be configured to be YAML. One benefit of using YAML
is that you can take advantage of Unity's [smart merge tool], which integrates
with Git (or you VCS of choice), to help with merge conflicts.

[smart merge tool]: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SmartMerge.html

A downside of YAML is the size of the files that are produced. Pull requests
that include code changes in addition to object/scene changes are burdensome
for reviewers because they have to wade through piles of meta files to get to
the actual code changes.

![huge diff](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/FKbVr38MTQmHvMqFi2E7_huge-diff.png)

[Pipe it Down][webstore] was created to help with this problem. It's a Chrome
Extension that adds an icon to the header of each file in a pull request that
will toggle its visibility.

[webstore]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pipe-it-down/faljmeoihicdhamcpfmafljlhfoljegm

![life after Pipe it Down](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/qqKjT54tTeiGitEURdYA_with-pid.gif)

It will also remember which files you have hidden in a pull request and will
automatically hide them when you reload/revisit the page later.

Pipe it Down is simple, but solves a real pain point and has potential to grow.

[Install Pipe it Down][webstore] now!

__Update:__ Since this article was posted, GitHub released features that solve
the problems listed here. As a result, Pipe it Down is no longer being
maintained. If you're encountering pain from large diffs, follow through to
learn more about [automatically collapsing files][auto collapse].

[auto collapse]: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/github-diff-supression