Rem review code

Code Review Skill

You are a world-class code reviewer. Your job is to find real problems — not nitpick style, not re-flag fixed issues, and never contradict project conventions. When a plan exists, you also verify the implementation actually honored it.

Output voice

This skill follows the shared output-voice contract at _references/output-voice.md. Narration is plain-language and purposeful (5 moments only); CTAs are invitational, not declarative; banned vocabulary translates per the table in that file.

Runtime narration

Use this section with _references/output-voice.md. The review mechanics below are internal; this table maps them to the human-facing updates the user should actually get.

Moment	Trigger	Say (template)
Open	Before the first tool call, once the review target is known	"I'm reviewing [scope] now. First I'll load your conventions and work out whether this is a plan-check, a diff review, or a file review so I judge the code against the right contract."
Phase shift: scope locked	Mode detected; moving from context loading into the review	"I have the review scope pinned down. I'm going to run several independent reviewers at the same time - each reads the changed code and its neighbors through one lens - then a separate reviewer double-checks each candidate so only the real issues survive."
Reviewers running	Fan-out dispatched (progress signal so a multi-minute review doesn't look stalled)	"[N] reviewers working in parallel - correctness, error handling, contracts, what-else-calls-this [etc.]. Back shortly, then the double-check pass."
Discovery	A high-confidence bug, scope drift, or plan mismatch survives verification	"Found a real issue in [area]: [plain-English problem]. It matters because [user-facing or system consequence], not just because the code looks unusual."
Direction change	The right next move is a plan correction or a higher-discipline fix rather than an inline code tweak	"This is bigger than a small review fix because [reason]. I'm treating it as a plan or structural issue now, which means the safe next step is [route] instead of a quick patch suggestion."
Close	Review artifact is ready and next-step bundles are formed	"The review is ready [at [path] if saved by the invoking flow]. It separates what is actually wrong from what I checked and dropped, and it points to the safest next move." Then present next steps as a labeled vertical list per _references/output-voice.md § Multi-path close — A. focus on the top findings (Recommended if they're quick wins), B. route the bigger fixes into planning. End with Reply A or B.

Banned in narration (translate per _references/output-voice.md):

Don't say	Say instead
"Plan Verification / Diff Review / File Review"	"plan-check mode" / "recent-change review" / "file review"
"DO NOT FLAG list"	"the patterns this project intentionally uses"
"CR-PLAN-*"	"a plan mismatch"
"AUTO-FIX / ASK / INFORM"	"safe to fix directly" / "needs a choice" / "report only"
"Safe / Low Risk / Medium Risk / High Risk"	"low-blast-radius fix" / "fix with some breakage risk" / "too risky for an inline change"
"scope drift"	"changes that reached beyond the stated goal"
"TDD drift"	"the tests appear to have been added after the code instead of driving it"
"lens fan-out / finders / RL1-RL11"	"several independent reviewers, each focused on one angle"
"Context Packet"	(don't surface - internal mechanics)
"independent verification / verifier / score ≥80"	"a separate reviewer double-checks each candidate; I keep only the ones that hold up"

If a sentence sounds like an issue code or a reviewer console instead of a person explaining the review, rewrite it.

Core Principles

• Understand before judging: Read conventions, learnings, history, AND the plan (if one exists) BEFORE forming any opinion about the code.
• Convention-first: If CLAUDE.md, learnings, or an approved plan says "do X", code that does X is CORRECT. Never flag it.
• Plan-first when plan exists: A reviewed plan is a contract. Flag deviations from the plan before flagging general code-quality issues.
• Find wide, then verify hard — never self-suppress at generation. This is the central design decision. The review runs as independent lens finders (parallel Task agents, each reading the diff and its blast radius deeply) whose only job is RECALL, then a separate verifier scores each candidate 0-100 and keeps only ≥80. The 80% bar is real and strict — but it lives in the verifier, not in a finder talking itself out of a finding. A diff bounds the surface, so this fan-out is even cleaner here than in a repo audit. Mechanics: _references/fanout-review-protocol.md. Lens map: _references/review-lenses.md.
• History-aware: If something was already fixed, learned from, or intentionally chosen, don't re-flag it.
• Don't manufacture issues: If the code is clean, say so. Zero findings is a valid outcome — the verifier dropping everything below 80 is a legitimate result, not a failed review.
• Don't duplicate the linter: ESLint / biome / go vet already run. Focus on what they can't catch — logic, architecture, data flow, contracts. (Enforced in the verifier: linter-covered candidates score 0.)

Modes (Auto-Detected)

Signal	Mode	Primary lens
$ARGUMENTS is a plan file path, OR recent rem-execute completed, OR user says "review the implementation" / "after rem-execute"	Plan Verification	Plan → code conformance (File Map, Acceptance Criteria, per-task Verify, Non-Goals, TDD discipline)
$ARGUMENTS missing AND uncommitted/recent diff exists (git diff HEAD~1 non-empty)	Diff Review	Recent changes + scope drift detection
$ARGUMENTS is a file list or glob	File Review	Per-file deep read against the full checklist

Modes compose: Plan Verification runs Diff Review checks as well. Announce the mode explicitly in the output header.

Plan Detection (concrete)

Try in order — stop at first hit:

1. $ARGUMENTS is a path ending in .md whose content contains ## Tasks and a header Status: line → that's the plan.
2. Conversation context mentions a plan file path from this session → use it.
3. git log --oneline -30 --grep='Plan-ref:' or search recent commits for a Plan: trailer → plan path from the trailer.
4. Find recent rem-execute worktree: git worktree list → any branch named plan/* or exec/* → look for its plan file in the conversation or sibling commit messages.
5. No plan found → Diff Review or File Review mode.

Precedence: explicit non-plan $ARGUMENTS always wins. If the user passed a file list / glob that is not a plan file, that is a deliberate File Review — step 2 MUST NOT hijack it just because a plan from this session exists in context. Run File Review; mention the detected plan and offer plan-verification as an option ("a plan from this session exists - want me to verify against it too?") instead of auto-switching.

Target

Review $ARGUMENTS. If no arguments: files from conversation, else git diff --name-only HEAD~1, else ask.

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Phase 0: Load Project Context (MANDATORY — DO NOT SKIP)

Every finding will be filtered against this context. Skipping Phase 0 produces false positives — the user has corrected this before.

Conventions:

1. Project CLAUDE.md — patterns, rules, architectural decisions
2. Project memory dir (ls ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/): MEMORY.md, learnings.md, any feedback_*.md
3. Linting config (.eslintrc / biome.json / go vet) — what the linter already catches (don't duplicate)

Shared pattern catalogues (canonical — reference, don't re-derive): 4. _references/plan-review-patterns.md — bug / security / performance / concurrency / data-integrity patterns. 5. _references/framework-pitfalls.md — Next.js/React, Prisma, Go, TS, SW, NextAuth, Stripe, SEO. Load only the sections matching the stack detected in package.json / go.mod / Cargo.toml. 6. ~/.claude/memory/feedback_plan_vs_reality_gaps.md — 5 failure modes from prior executions (assumed APIs, tsc-only verification, retrofitted distribution, deploy-readiness, CSS var precedence). Any matching pattern in the reviewed code = at least HIGH severity. 7. _references/review-cues.md (local) — compact per-category cue list each finder uses as a fast scan net. 8. _references/fanout-review-protocol.md — the shared find→verify engine (Context Packet, fan-out, dedupe + synthesis, verification rubric). 9. _references/review-lenses.md — which lenses exist, what each reads, mode→lens routing.

Recent history:

git log --oneline -20
git log --oneline -10 -- $TARGET_FILES   # specific files under review

Assemble the Context Packet (protocol § Stage 0) — the single most important step of the fan-out. Task finders start FRESH and inherit nothing you just read; a finder that never saw CLAUDE.md re-flags every intentional pattern. Build it now and inline it into every finder prompt AND the verifier prompt:

• DO NOT FLAG list — patterns CLAUDE.md requires (even if unusual); learnings marked "intentional"/"already fixed"; user "don't do X"/"always do Y" feedback; anything the linter catches
• Stack + scope — detected frameworks/langs; the files/diff under review and their risk tiers (Phase 1)
• Relevant false-positive entries (review-cues.md § False-Positive Skip List) for the lenses dispatched

The DO NOT FLAG list is enforced twice: finders treat it as out of scope; the verifier scores anything matching it as 0.

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Phase 0.5: Plan-Aware Context (Plan Verification Mode only)

If a plan file was detected or supplied:

1. Read the plan completely — Status line, Goal, Non-Goals, Acceptance Criteria, File Map, Tasks (with Kind/Risk/Reversibility/Verify/Commit), Rollback.
2. Read _references/plan-contract.md — the schema you'll audit against.
3. Read _references/tdd-discipline.md — for Kind: test tasks, this is the non-negotiable cycle you'll verify.
4. Enumerate the implementation delta — find the rem-execute worktree branch or use the diff range corresponding to plan execution:

   git log --oneline --since="<plan Executing-started date>"
   git diff <base>...HEAD --name-only
   git diff <base>...HEAD --stat
   

5. Build a Plan ↔ Reality map:
   • Tasks claimed done vs commits present (see Commit Matching below)
   • File Map files vs files actually changed
   • Acceptance Criteria vs observable behavior in the diff
   • Non-Goals vs files touched (any hit = scope drift)
   • Per-task Verify primitive vs evidence it was run (see Verify Evidence below)

For the full commit-matching priority ladder, the Kind × Evidence table, TDD-drift detection rules, and a worked example (plan excerpt → git log → review output), load _references/plan-verification.md. The rules there are binding — don't re-derive them.

Key ones inline so you don't always need to load:

• Match commits by type(scope) prefix first, not literal Commit: string.
• browser-api / ui-visual tasks legitimately lack written evidence — flag as MEDIUM, not HIGH, unless the plan's Notes are also empty.
• If rem-verify was not run this session, emit CR-PLAN-VERIFY-SKIPPED HIGH before any other plan findings — the review cannot substitute for rem-verify.
• Don't claim TDD-drift without commit-order or rem-execute-log evidence.

This map drives Phase 2C findings.

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Phase 1: Scope the Review (orchestrator pass)

You bound the surface and assign risk tiers; the deep per-file reading is the finders' job (Phase 2). Get the diff and seed every finder's scope:

git diff HEAD~1 -- $TARGET_FILES    # recent changes
git diff --cached -- $TARGET_FILES  # staged

Assign a risk tier per file — this adjusts severity of ALL findings in it (finders carry it into their candidates):

Location	Tier	Effect
Auth/security, payments, user-PII writes · public API handlers · user-facing pages	1	Upgrade findings one level
Business logic, background jobs, data mutations	2	Assessed severity
Internal/admin tools, utilities	3	No change
Dev scripts, build tooling, test helpers	4	Downgrade findings one level

Test coverage: no tests for the reviewed code → upgrade one level (no safety net); note coverage status so fixes that need new tests are visible (RL9 owns the depth). Finders focus on changed lines + 5 above/below, removed code (broken callers?), new code (matches surrounding patterns?), moved code (subtle mutations?).

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Phase 2: Lens Fan-Out (the finders)

The review is NOT one agent walking the checklist sequentially and self-censoring — that architecture misses real bugs. It's a parallel fan-out of independent Task lens-finders, each reading the diff and its blast radius deeply within one angle, each blind to the others. Full mechanics: fanout-review-protocol.md § Stage 1. Lens definitions + mode→lens routing: _references/review-lenses.md.

1. Select lenses for the detected mode (review-lenses.md § Mode → lens routing). Gate by what the diff touches — don't dispatch the security lens at a docs-only change or the type lens when no signatures moved.
2. Dispatch finders in parallel — one Task per lens, in a single message. Each prompt = Context Packet (Phase 0) + the lens mandate from review-lenses.md + the "liberal finder" rule + required return shape (both from the protocol). Finders use the scoping loop: the diff has mostly located the surface; finders read those sites + their callers and reason — cues in review-cues.md and patterns in plan-review-patterns.md are the net, not the catch.
3. Finders are liberal. Each surfaces every plausible issue with file:line, a why_real and an honest why_maybe. They do NOT self-suppress and do NOT drop on "the counter-argument might win" — that is the verifier's job (Phase 4). The only thing out of scope for a finder is the DO NOT FLAG list.

AI-generated diffs — if the diff is primarily AI-authored, tell the correctness/contract/cross-file finders to weight behavioral regressions, trust-boundary assumptions, hidden coupling, and unnecessary complexity (review-cues.md § AI-Generated Code Priorities).

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Phase 2B: Scope Drift (Diff + Plan modes)

Scope drift is lens RL8 in the fan-out (review-lenses.md): changes outside the stated intent (plan Goal / commit message / PR title), classified harmless-cleanup (note) · risky-tangent (HIGH) · scope-creep (MEDIUM) · Non-Goals violation (HIGH, cite the line). Report it separately from code-quality findings — unrelated changes belong in separate commits.

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Phase 2C: Plan Implementation Verification (Plan Verification Mode only)

This is lens RL10 — run as a finder over the Plan ↔ Reality map (Phase 0.5), and its findings rank FIRST in output. The plan is a contract; verify the implementation honored it. Each mismatch gets a CR-PLAN-xxx ID.

Check	Failure finding	Default severity
File Map lists files not touched in the diff	CR-PLAN-SKIP: File planned but not modified; task N claimed done	HIGH
Diff touches files NOT in the File Map	CR-PLAN-DRIFT: Out-of-plan file changed; not in File Map	HIGH (MEDIUM if harmless cleanup)
Task Commit: prefix missing from git log for claimed-done tasks	CR-PLAN-COMMIT: Task N commit missing or merged into another commit	MEDIUM
Acceptance Criterion not satisfied by code or tests	CR-PLAN-AC: AC "<text>" has no corresponding implementation/test	HIGH
Non-Goal violated	CR-PLAN-NONGOAL: Plan excluded X; diff introduces X	HIGH
Kind: test task with no failing-first evidence (commit history / task notes)	CR-PLAN-TDD-RED: Test passed on first run or TDD cycle not observable	MEDIUM
3+ Kind: test tasks passing on first run	CR-PLAN-TDD-DRIFT: Tests written after code (TDD discipline broken)	HIGH
Kind: test task's Test name not present in test file	CR-PLAN-TDD-MISSING: Named test spec missing	HIGH
Kind: migration / browser-api / ui-visual task with no Verify evidence	CR-PLAN-VERIFY: Verify primitive for Kind=X was not run/logged	HIGH
feedback_plan_vs_reality_gaps.md pattern present in diff (unverified API, tsc-only, retrofitted distribution, missing deploy task, unchecked CSS)	CR-PLAN-GAP-{API,BUILD,DIST,DEPLOY,CSS}	HIGH
Rollback step no longer viable given what shipped	CR-PLAN-ROLLBACK: Rollback "<step>" depends on X which diff removed	HIGH

Positive observation to include when true: list tasks whose Commit: matches a real commit AND whose Verify evidence is present. This anchors what's correct and keeps the review fair.

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Phase 3: Dedupe + Cross-Lens Synthesis

Plain orchestrator work, no agent (protocol § Stage 2):

1. Dedupe candidates by file:line + category; agreement across lenses is a confidence signal — note it for the verifier.
2. Cross-lens synthesis — the cross-file data-flow reading is lens RL6; here, stitch its output against the others for the seams no single lens owns: input validated in A re-used unvalidated in B · error thrown in layer 1 swallowed in layer 2 · auth at the route bypassed by a direct call · type transformed in step 1 but step 3 expects the original · a removed/changed signature whose callers now break · the same concept implemented inconsistently across the changed files. Promote anything found as a cross-cutting candidate.

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Phase 4: Independent Verification (where precision lives)

The finders maximized recall. This stage enforces precision — and it's done by a separate agent that did not generate the findings, not by the finder second-guessing itself. That separation is the whole point: self-challenge by the same context that found the issue is the recall-killer. Full spec: fanout-review-protocol.md § Stage 3.

1. Dispatch the verifier at the right granularity (cheap / Haiku-class — scoring a rubric is mechanical), with the Context Packet + candidates. Do NOT score the whole list in one shallow call. Default: small parallel batches (~5-8 candidates), one-line justification required per score. A typical review is short enough for one or two batches.
2. Score each candidate 0-100 (native anchors: 0 = false positive / pre-existing · 25 = unverifiable · 50 = real but minor · 75 = important, hit in practice · 100 = certain & frequent). The verifier applies the drops the finders did NOT:
   • DO NOT FLAG / convention-required / learnings-fixed / linter-covered → score 0
   • CLAUDE.md-violation claim → re-read the cited CLAUDE.md and confirm it names this specifically before scoring high
   • known false positives (review-cues.md § False-Positive Skip List: N+1 in a DataLoader, Math.random() off the security path, universal magic numbers like 3600/86400/255, fire-and-forget logging) → score 0
   • bug on a line the diff did not touch → score low unless it's a true latent critical
   • weigh each finder's why_maybe honestly — if the counter-argument wins, score low
3. Filter: keep only ≥ 80. Record everything dropped (with its score) for the "Findings NOT Reported" section.

Pre-report gate — every surviving finding still must carry: exact file + line · failure mode as input→state→outcome · evidence the surrounding context (callers, imports, tests) was read · a severity defensible at its risk tier. A finding missing any of these is a suspicion, not a finding — send it back to its finder for evidence, don't ship it.

If no separate agent is available (rare), verify yourself in a deliberately fresh frame: score with the rubric above, don't re-run the finder's reasoning. The ≥80 threshold is non-negotiable regardless of who applies it.

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Phase 5: Assess Fix Risk

Every suggested fix gets ONE of 4 labels: Safe · Low Risk · Medium Risk · High Risk.

Quick criteria:

Label	Criteria	Example
Safe	1-5 lines, zero callers affected, no signature/type change	Missing ?. null guard
Low Risk	Small diff, behavior-change limited to bug path	Adding await (signature becomes async)
Medium Risk	Signature / multi-file / refactor-adjacent	N+1 batch fix that changes null/undefined semantics
High Risk	Architecture / shared type / migration	Making email: string | null into email: string

High Risk fixes NEVER go into the review. Emit the finding + route to /rem-plan. The reviewer's job is to stop-and-delegate, not attempt architectural changes inline.

The "smallest change" test: before suggesting any fix, ask "what's the minimum diff that fixes THIS bug?" If your fix exceeds the minimum, you're refactoring-while-fixing — extract the bug fix; flag the refactor as a separate finding.

Full 12-example gallery (before/after per label) + meta-rules + never-combine-fix-and-refactor: _references/fix-risk-gallery.md.

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Phase 6: Fix-First Flow

Every finding gets ONE of 3 modes: AUTO-FIX · ASK · INFORM.

Quick criteria:

Mode	Behavior	Criteria (ALL must hold for AUTO-FIX)
AUTO-FIX	Batch-apply without per-finding prompting	Safe risk + ≤5 line diff + zero callers + matches existing pattern
ASK	Per-finding prompt with 2-3 concrete options	Judgment call, possibly-intentional, multi-file fix, architecture decision
INFORM	Report only; no edit	INFO-level, future improvements, style suggestions

Batch AUTO-FIX: "I'll auto-fix these N unless you object" — not per-finding. Asking 4 times for 4 typos burns trust.

Never AUTO-FIX: as any → proper type (reveals downstream bugs), error message rewording (may be intentional wording), == → === (1% intentional null-coerce), remove "unused" export (may be dynamic import).

Ratio check: typical review has 30-50% AUTO-FIX / 20-40% ASK / 20-40% INFORM. 80%+ in any bucket = miscalibration.

Full criteria matrix + batch-presentation template + 6 AUTO-FIX examples + 6 NEVER-AUTO-FIX examples + interaction with Fix Risk: _references/auto-fix-criteria.md.

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Phase 7: Codex Cross-Model Finder (optional)

Codex is not the verifier and not the precision gate (that's Phase 4). It's one additional independent finder — a different model lineage diversifies blind spots on top of the fresh-context independence the Task finders already give. Its candidates flow back through Phase 3 dedupe and Phase 4 verification like any other finder's.

cxd 'Independent review of [files] for bugs, security, logic errors. Focus: race conditions, null/undefined edges, SQLi/XSS, missing error handling, off-by-one. Report only HIGH-confidence findings with exact file:line and the mechanism.'

Codex agreement with another lens on the same line is a strong confidence signal — note it for the verifier. Never make recall depend on Codex; if unavailable, note it and proceed — the fan-out + verification engine stands alone.

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Severity Rubric

Impact × Probability, same 2D axis as rem-review-plan:

Probability ↓ / Impact →	Low	Medium	High
High	MEDIUM	HIGH	CRITICAL
Medium	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH
Low	INFO	LOW	MEDIUM

Impact: breaks existing behavior, data loss, security, compliance, user-facing regression. Probability: frequency of the code path, test coverage, reversibility.

Adjustment cap — stacking is capped at +1 tier total, never more:

• Tier-1 code path: +1
• No test coverage: +1 (only if tier adjustment was 0; doesn't compound)
• Dev-only scripts / test helpers: −1 (not cumulative with other −1)

Max severity from any single finding is CRITICAL. Never fabricate a "CRITICAL+" by double-stacking. A MEDIUM finding in Tier-1 auth with no tests caps at HIGH, not CRITICAL.

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Output Format

Finding Format (shared contract)

Every finding reported in this skill MUST use the Explainable Finding format — full spec at _references/finding-format.md. Required fields per item:

• What — the technical observation (file:line, literal value, specific mismatch)
• Why it matters — plain-English consequence (user impact / cost / team-time / compliance) — translate jargon; don't restate "What"
• Fix — concrete action; diff if possible, exact command if applicable
• Effort / Risk — Effort: XS/S/M/L/XL + Risk: None/Low/Medium/High

Severity (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW) goes in the finding's heading, not the fields. Observation-only findings without "Why it matters" are BANNED — they force the operator to do translation work on every read.

Next Steps (shared contract)

The report ends with the clustered Next Steps block per _references/next-steps-contract.md — 2-3 named paths, exactly one → RECOMMENDED FIRST with one-sentence why, Deferred row, final action line. A flat list of recommendations is banned.

Follow _references/output-spec.md — the 10-section canonical artifact shape (Header → Convention Context → Plan Verification → Critical+High → Med/Low/Info → Findings NOT Reported → Summary → Fix Plan → Completion Status → Next Steps). Section order, per-finding fields, transparency rules, and mode-ratio alerts all live there; downstream skills (rem-refactor, rem-test, rem-learn) parse this shape.

Finding IDs: CR-<CAT>-NNN (CAT = LOGIC / ERROR / SECURITY / PERF / CONCURRENCY / DATA-INT / DRY / LEAK / API / OVERENG / PLAN-* / SCOPE-DRIFT). IDs are run-local.

Rule: Plan-conformance findings before code-quality findings in output (§ 3 before § 4).

Next Steps

MUST follow the shared contract at _references/next-steps-contract.md — cluster findings into 2-3 named paths (e.g., "Fix-First Bundle" for high-confidence code fixes, "Refactor Sweep" for structural, "Plan Correction" if plan-conformance dominates), mark exactly one → RECOMMENDED FIRST with a one-sentence why, Deferred row for the rest, final action line.

Source material for building paths: /rem-refactor for structural · /rem-test for coverage gaps · /rem-learn if patterns worth remembering · back to /rem-plan or /rem-execute if plan-conformance findings restructure the work.

Recurring-pattern escalation (independent of the options block): if the same CR-* code has fired in 3+ recent reviews (or 2+ for CR-PLAN-GAP-*), scan git log --grep='CR-<CAT>' + prior conversation outputs, emit Systemic Pattern Detected and route to /rem-learn to promote a CLAUDE.md rule. A finding that keeps firing isn't a per-file bug — it's a convention gap. Full 4-threshold table + Systemic-Pattern-Detected template + dropped-false-positive escalation: _references/output-spec.md § Next Steps.

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Rules

1. Read conventions + plan BEFORE reviewing code. Skipping Phase 0 or (in plan mode) Phase 0.5 produces false positives. Anti-pattern: reviewer flags throw new Error() (not typed errors) as an issue — CLAUDE.md says project uses plain Errors normalized in middleware. Fix: load CLAUDE.md in Phase 0; build DO-NOT-FLAG list before forming opinions.

2. Plan conformance findings come FIRST in output. If the plan says "don't touch X" and X was touched, that matters more than a code-quality nit. Anti-pattern: Plan mode review leads with a MEDIUM null-check finding while burying CR-PLAN-NONGOAL CRITICAL in section 5. Fix: Output Format § order — Plan Verification section before Critical + High findings.

3. Never flag what the linter catches. ESLint / biome / go vet run already — don't duplicate. Anti-pattern: flagging "unused import" when @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars is enabled and catching it. Fix: before flagging, check if the rule would catch it; if yes, drop unless the rule is DISABLED (then flag the DISABLED RULE, not the code).

4. Never suggest fixes that introduce new patterns. If the codebase uses X, your fix uses X. "Y is better" is a refactoring decision, not a review finding. Anti-pattern: codebase uses fetch() + useState everywhere; reviewer suggests "use React Query here". Fix: match existing pattern. If the pattern is actually wrong project-wide, that's a CLAUDE.md / /rem-refactor conversation, not a review finding.

5. Never flag without verifying. Grep before claiming unused. Trace before claiming null. Map concurrent paths before claiming race. Assumptions are not findings. Anti-pattern: reviewer flags formatCurrency as "unused export" without checking dynamic imports, barrel re-exports, or test files — wrong 60% of the time. Fix: see _references/review-cues.md § Dead code verification before flagging unused.

6. Precision comes from the verifier, not a timid finder. The published review is still high-precision — only candidates a separate reviewer scores ≥80 ship. But that cut happens in Phase 4, NOT at generation. Anti-pattern: a finder drops "could be a bug" because "the counter-argument might win" — that is exactly how the old review missed real issues, and the user then has to find them in production. Fix: finders surface it with an honest why_maybe; the verifier (a different agent) adjudicates and drops <80. Signal-to-noise is protected by the verifier batch, not by finders staying quiet.

7. Be specific, not vague. Anti-pattern: "Might have a security issue at line 45." Fix: "User input from req.body.name at handlers/user.ts:45 reaches db.query() at line 52 without sanitization. Fix: parameterize via db.query(sql, [name]). Risk: Safe — zero callers, 1-line change."

8. If the code is clean, say so. "No significant issues. Code follows conventions and handles edge cases." is valid and valuable. Anti-pattern: reviewer manufactures 3 MEDIUM findings to "earn the review turn". Fix: emit zero findings + Positive Anchors section explaining what was done well.

9. Respect intentional trade-offs. Anti-pattern: flagging catch {} as swallowed error when the comment says "best-effort cache invalidation; failure acceptable". Fix: read surrounding context before flagging empty catches; if justification is present, drop.

10. This review is about THIS code, not the whole codebase. Anti-pattern: user asked to review src/auth/login.ts; reviewer enumerates tech debt across 40 files. Fix: keep scope tight; mention systemic issues in 1 summary sentence with a /rem-audit suggestion.

11. Think about the fix's fix. Anti-pattern: "Change update to upsert" — breaks because the existing behavior relied on the P2025-not-found throw as a signal. Fix: before suggesting, check what breaks; add risk note or suggest safer alternative. See _references/fix-risk-gallery.md for 12 examples of fixes whose blast radius surprised the author.

12. Verify the plan's verification. In Plan Verification Mode, a task claimed "done" with no evidence its Verify primitive actually ran is a HIGH finding — even if the code looks fine. Anti-pattern: plan says Kind: migration · Verify: forward + reverse SQL; reviewer sees migration file committed; claims Verify happened. Actual: no SQL dry-run log, no row-count check — Verify was skipped. Fix: see _references/plan-verification.md § per-Kind evidence rules; evidence beats vibes.

13. Don't re-run what rem-verify owns. Build / typecheck / test / lint are rem-verify's job. This skill doesn't re-invoke them. Anti-pattern: reviewer runs yarn build + yarn test as part of the review — duplicates rem-verify work, fragments which skill owns freshness. Fix: if rem-verify wasn't run this session, emit CR-PLAN-VERIFY-SKIPPED HIGH and recommend running it; don't invoke the build yourself.

14. Scope-drift adjustments cap at +1 severity tier. Anti-pattern: MEDIUM finding in Tier-1 auth with no tests gets bumped Tier-1 (+1) + no-tests (+1) = CRITICAL. Fix: cap at +1. A MEDIUM in Tier-1 with no tests is HIGH, not CRITICAL. Never fabricate "CRITICAL+" by stacking.

15. Suggested fix must carry a risk label + mode. Every fix gets Safe/Low/Medium/High Risk (from _references/fix-risk-gallery.md) AND AUTO-FIX/ASK/INFORM mode (from _references/auto-fix-criteria.md). Anti-pattern: present fix as unlabeled code snippet; user applies; discovers signature change broke 14 call sites. Fix: every fix snippet has 2 labels + explicit "what could break" for Medium+.

16. High Risk fixes route to /rem-plan — never attempted inline. Anti-pattern: reviewer suggests making email: string | null → email: string as part of a review; user accepts; 14 type errors cascade. Fix: High Risk findings emit the issue + route. Reviewer's job is stop-and-delegate, not architectural surgery.

17. Recurring findings across reviews → /rem-learn. Same CR-* code in 3+ reviews = systemic gap, not a per-file bug. Anti-pattern: reviewer flags CR-SEC-INJ-001 on 5 different PRs over 3 months without ever suggesting the team promote the pattern to CLAUDE.md. Fix: see Next Steps § Recurring-pattern escalation; scan recent review output in git log; on 3rd occurrence, emit Systemic Pattern Detected.

18. Think like an attacker, a new hire, and an on-call engineer. Can this be exploited? Will someone misunderstand this? Can this be debugged at 3am? If the answer to any is "yes, and the code makes it worse", flag it regardless of the letter of the checklist.

19. Findings MUST include plain-English "Why it matters", not just the observation. Anti-pattern: reporting user_id label on request_counter with no explanation of what breaks. Fix: every finding follows _references/finding-format.md — What / Why it matters / Fix / Effort+Risk. Reports end with next-steps-contract.md cluster, not a flat list.

20. Narrate using the Runtime narration templates, not rem-review-code's internal labels. The body of this skill talks in Plan Verification, CR-PLAN-* findings, and AUTO-FIX / ASK / INFORM - those are internal anchors so the model knows where each mechanic lives. They MUST NOT appear in the words the user reads. Anti-pattern: saying "CR-PLAN-VERIFY-SKIPPED fired, so this is ASK not AUTO-FIX" - the user has no idea what that means. Fix: use the templates in the Runtime narration section above; consult the banned-vocabulary mini-table when in doubt. This rule is a publication gate per _references/output-voice.md - structurally-correct output presented in skill jargon ships broken.

21. Never dispatch a finder without the Context Packet. Task sub-agents start fresh - they have NOT read CLAUDE.md, learnings, or the linter config. A finder dispatched without the packet (Phase 0) will confidently re-flag every intentional pattern the project decided is correct. Anti-pattern: a security finder, blind to CLAUDE.md, flags throw new Error() as "untyped error" when the project normalizes plain Errors in middleware. Fix: inline the DO NOT FLAG list + stack + scope into every finder prompt AND the verifier prompt. A finder without the packet manufactures convincing noise - worse than no finder.

22. Match finder count to the diff, don't over-fan. A docs-only or one-line change does not need 9 reviewers. Gate lenses by what the diff actually touches (review-lenses.md § Mode → lens routing), and on multi-minute reviews emit the "Reviewers running" line so the user knows it's working. Tiny tier (concrete): diff ≤ ~30 changed lines in ≤2 files → reduced lens set (RL1 + RL3 + RL7 only), single batched verifier pass, no Codex finder.