Diff Stage vs GitHub Actions video artifacts for PR review

GitHub Actions artifacts keep browser recordings after CI finishes. If your team downloads a video to look into the odd failure, that may be enough.

Diff Stage adds hosted review on top of the recordings. You get a link on the pull request, a player for the recorded commit, action navigation and comparison with approved default-branch footage. The question is whether your reviewers need that often.

Diff Stage wrote this comparison. It compares GitHub's documented artifact workflow with our recording and review workflow. It does not claim every team needs another service.

What artifacts already give you#

An Actions artifact stores files a workflow produces. You can keep videos, screenshots and other test output, then download them after the job finishes. Artifacts also pass files between jobs. GitHub workflow artifacts.

To review a video, find the workflow run, confirm its revision and download the recording artifact. Then open the video locally. GitHub CLI can do the download instead of the web interface:

gh run download RUN_ID -n ARTIFACT_NAME

GitHub documents both ways to download. You need to be signed in with read access to the repository. Downloading workflow artifacts.

Teams can make this easier with descriptive filenames, a run link in the PR and their own automation. Putting the commit in the artifact name helps. Artifacts can stay tied to a revision if the workflow records it.

Review the same checkout recording in Diff Stage#

Take a Laravel checkout PR that changes a declined-payment message and its retry control. The test covers the decline, the retry and the successful confirmation.

With artifacts, you download the PR video and watch it. For a before-and-after review, you also find and download an earlier recording, then compare the two in local players. You decide which earlier revision is the right reference.

With Diff Stage, you open the PR evidence link and check the commit shown. If a matching approved baseline exists, the player opens both recordings in one comparison. Jump to the submit action, watch the error state and check the retry in both versions.

Diff Stage does the flow matching, baseline selection and paired playback. An artifact workflow keeps the files and leaves the review method to your team.

Compare the review tasks#

The artifact column describes the standard file workflow. You can still build your own player, timeline or comparison tools on top.

The baseline has a defined meaning#

Diff Stage compares a PR flow with the latest successful, completed recording of that flow on the default branch. The PR run pins that baseline when it completes, so a later merge does not change the existing review.

With artifacts, the reviewer picks which earlier file counts as the reference. Diff Stage makes that choice for you. In return, you need to record the relevant flows on the default branch and keep their names stable.

A flow with no approved match has a single video to review. Renaming a test can change its flow key. So "No matching baseline" does not prove the product flow is new.

Diff Stage aligns recorded actions, not pixels. It does not flag every visual change or decide that a changed journey is correct. Keep automated assertions and any screenshot checks your team needs.

Access, cost and retention are separate decisions#

GitHub artifact access follows repository permissions. Diff Stage uses its own team access for private evidence. A viewer must sign in as a verified member of the team that owns it. Connected public repositories can have public evidence. A GitHub collaborator should not assume repository access alone makes them a Diff Stage team member.

The recommended workflow records the PR code in one job and publishes in another. Uploads use the GitHub Actions identity of a connected repository. In this workflow, fork and Dependabot PRs keep their artifact recordings but are not published to Diff Stage.

Hosting does not remove CI usage. Count the runner time needed to record, plus any artifacts you keep. GitHub's billing depends on your account's included usage and the storage used over time. Diff Stage adds its own subscription, with allowances for repositories, storage and uploads. GitHub Actions billing.

Check your real retention settings too. GitHub's documented default is 90 days, but workflows and repository settings can change it. Our example evidence workflow keeps artifacts for seven days. This page does not promise that Diff Stage keeps footage forever, or that it deletes footage on a 30-day schedule. Check its current retention terms before you rely on footage for long-term records. GitHub artifact retention.

Keep artifacts, add review where it helps#

Stay with artifacts if you mostly investigate occasional failures, prefer local playback or already have a review workflow that works for your team.

Add Diff Stage when reviewers often need to watch chosen Pest journeys, find the changed actions and compare them with default-branch recordings. Start with one important flow, not every test.

You can keep both. The recommended workflow saves an Actions artifact, then publishes the recording to Diff Stage. You get the original CI output and the hosted review page.

Add Diff Stage to GitHub Actions. If the repository is not connected yet, start with the installation guide.